Evergreen
by floatsodelicately
Summary: Hermione moves to Forks to live with her Uncle Charlie and cousin Bella and attracts the attention of Jasper Hale. Set after the Deathly Hallows and before Eclipse.
1. An Unexpected Proposal

_"Maybe you'll find someone, to lay some roots down next to you" - Evergreen - Ryan Adams_

* * *

"Hermione, could you be a dear and go with Ron to set the table?"

_'Merlin, help me.'_

"Yes, of course, Mrs Weasley," she said with a slightly forced smile, "I'm happy to help."

Molly had been pushing Ron and Hermione together since the war had ended, she figured that since Harry and Ginny were already engaged it would be no time at all until those two got together, but it seemed that they were too clueless to do it alone. Hermione was getting tired of it, she had to constantly make excuses to leave the room whenever Molly got that mischievous, match-making twinkle in her eye. After almost a year of this, Hermione was sure she could spot that look from a mile away. She didn't feel right with Ron, their kiss in the chamber was proof enough of that, it felt like kissing a brother. Unfortunately, Ron didn't share in her discomfort. He happily accepted Molly's pushiness and attempted to flirt with Hermione, causing more of her awkward exits. When this didn't work, he got frustrated, making his feelings more clear as he became bolder in his attempts to win her over.

Hermione grabbed the cutlery from the drawer and make her way to the table where Ron was levitating too many things at once, when he noticed her, his concentration slipped and the plates went crashing to the floor. She winced and cast a quick _'Reparo'_ on the broken plate pieces and looked back at Ron who smiled at her sheepishly.

"You look lovely tonight, Herms," he said, his face colouring with the famous Weasley blush.

Hermione blushed, more out of embarrassment than anything else. "Erm…thank you, but it's just jeans and a t-shirt, nothing special," she shrugged.

"Well, erm…it's nice! Are they skinny jeans?"

"What's this George? Ronnie's now looking to the ladies for fashion advice?" said Fred as he wandered up to the table, shooting a wink at Hermione as he teased his brother.

"Ah yes," George smirked, "I always thought that Ron may have been a bit _flexible_ with his fashion choices. Maybe a nice blouse too?"

"Maybe in green, it would really make his eyes _pop_!"

The two started cackling as Ron grew more annoyed with his brothers' mockery. With one last look at the twins he turned and left, stomping through the Burrow and up to his room to sulk. George looked at Hermione with an easy smile, which she returned happily. "So is Mum still pushing you to Ron then?"

"Pushing?" Hermione sighed, "More like throwing! If she was any more forward I'd think she was trying to pimp me out or something!"

The three of them laughed loudly at this and carried on where Ron had left off setting the table.

* * *

"Could I have everyone's attention please? I have something to say. Well…something to ask," Ron looked uncomfortable, standing awkwardly as he searched for his next words. "Hermione-"

_'Uh oh'_ seemed to be the shared thought of half the table's occupants. _'What?'_, the thought of most others. _'Finally!'_, the thought of one Molly Weasley.

"Hermione, we've known each other for a long time and even better in these last few months," he continued though Hermione could barely hear him over her internal panic.

_'No, please stop! Someone stop him from talking! I don't care how, just make him stop!'_

But no one did, so he was still going. "It would be an honour," he said, bending down on one knee (to a collective gasp from him awestruck and awkward audience) and pulled out a small black box, "if you would be my-"

He was interrupted by two loud cracks that signalled someone apparating in and the sound of feet running swiftly towards them. The family all pulled their wands and faced the door waiting for whatever was to come. It was Remus who opened the door, much to everyone's relief, confusion and in Ron's case, annoyance. Remus seemed exhausted and upset, Tonks wearing a similar expression as she followed him inside. After a moment of silence, Ron erupted with, "WELL?! We were in the middle of something important! What's going on that you had to interrupt?!"

Ron was hushed by almost everyone, all shocked that he would be disrespectful towards his former professor and a respected auror. Remus sighed and looked at Hermione, "I think it's best if we speak to Hermione alone." Hermione's heart sank, _'what could have happened? The war was over, how many more bad news calls can there be?' _The others nodded and left, casting a sympathetic glace to Hermione knowing that this wouldn't be good. Ron however, did not leave.

"Anything you need to say to her, you can say in front of me. I'm her fiancé," Ron declared.

"You're my _what_ now?"

"Fiance! That's what I was working up to!"

Remus stuttered and then plastered on a smile, "Well I guess congratulations are in or-"

"No, they're not!" Hermione interrupted, "Ron, we aren't even dating. Why would I accept your proposal? Now get out, I need to speak to Remus." With that she shooed him out of the door, ignoring his squawking protests.

Now it was just Hermione, Remus and Tonks in the room. After a quiet awkward silence, Hermione gave in and asked what had happened. Again, Remus sighed and rubbed his hand over his face. "Hermione," he began, "Um, I don't know exactly how to say this. Um. _Oh Merlin_. It's – it's your parents."

* * *

A little while later, Hermione apparated home. Well, it _used_ to be home. The house she grew up in, where her parents lived, the room she slept in during summer while back from Hogwarts. But it wasn't home anymore. Empty of the memories they shared, as were her parents after she had to obliviate them for their own safety.

_'Fat lot of good that did them.'_

She walked over to the table that held the phone, flipping through the address book she found the name she was looking for and dialled.

"Swan residence," a voice answered.

"Uncle Charlie? It's Hermione."

"Hermione?! It's good to hear from you! I haven't heard from you in a while! Is everything ok?"

"Erm, something's happened, do you think I could come stay with you for a while? I need to get away from all of this…_this_."

"Sure," Charlie answered quickly, "Whatever you need. Will you be getting a plane or...?"

"Oh, erm...I'll apparate over, I'll just be a couple of days."

"Ok, I'm going to pretend that I know what that means," he chuckled. Hermione laughed lightly along with him, her heart lifting as she felt how easy it was with her family. With the Weasleys it had felt forced, the way that they treated her carefully, it was like the war had finished all over again in the light of her new loss. After a quick catch up session she set the phone back down and walked around the house packing up things to take with her to Forks, Washington.

* * *

**A.N.**

Just a quick explanation – set a year after the war, after her parents are killed by rogue Death Eaters, Hermione decides to get away from the wizarding world and move to Forks, Washington to live with her Uncle Charlie and cousin Bella who is also moving to live with her father. Jasper is not married to Alice. Fred, Remus, Tonks and others are not dead in this, sorry but I'm not sorry. I want to set up the story so it might be a while until a Jasper/Hermione lovefest extravaganza…anyway, thank you for checking out my story and I hope you enjoy…


	2. Anyone Know Any British Humans?

_Forks, Washington._

_The Cullen House._

"Alice? Who was that?" asked Edward as he rushed into the living room.

"Erm…I don't know."

The two stood there, thinking about Alice's new vision. It wasn't clear, as if there was something different about this girl. _'Was she a shifter? No, I can never get a read on them. But-'. _Her thoughts were interrupted by another vision, stronger this time but still skipping. Jasper was there now but there was no danger. He wasn't losing control while close to this mystery girl and he knew it, she knew it too. _'She's not a vampire, not a shifter, is she just a human? I don't think Rosalie will be happy with another Bella situation…'_

"Hey!"

"Sorry Edward," she shrugged, "but you know, human-vampire relationships are kind of a big deal."

"Hi, erm, excuse me? What are you guys talking about?" asked Emmett from beside them, the rest of the Cullen clan gathered together as they usually did when Alice had a vision (recently they had always meant danger, what with practically everyone after Bella).

"Oh!" Alice said, spinning around to see the group, a wide smile on her face, "there's a new girl coming to Forks!"

"A new girl? Is she a threat?" questioned Rosalie, stepping forward from her place at Emmett's side.

"No no no no no! Not a threat! Actually she's quite the opposite. At least I think so…Probably not a threat. This is so exciting!" She was clapping and hopping up and down now, almost bursting with delight. Edward, who had seen her vision was also happy but wasn't about to start skipping around the room like Alice. The rest of the Cullens looked on in confusion. No one more than Jasper who was feeling their mixture of emotions, _'So there's a new girl, who no one knows, and we're excited about it? Even though she could be a threat? What?'_

"So when does she get here?" he asked, looking carefully between the two as their brows wrinkle again in the confusion that seemed to be going around a lot today.

"She'll get here soon enough, Jasper," she laughed, wiggling her eyebrows at him, _'What did _that_ mean?!'_, then she continued, "I don't know exactly. It's soon! She's coming soon! Hey, does anyone know any British humans?"

* * *

Later that day, Alice was still getting brief visions about this new girl. From what she could gather, 'Mystery Gal', as she had become known, was quiet, caring and friendly. She was_ especially_ friendly towards Jasper. She and vision-Jasper would talk and talk and laugh and smile, far more than Jasper did with anyone outside the family. Because of this, Alice found it hard to see her as a threat. The others did though. They couldn't see her visions, they couldn't see how happy Jasper would be, and they couldn't see how happy they _all_ would be with the girl she believed would become a part of their weird little family. It made sense though, with the constant threat to Bella's safety, they had to be cautious. The visions were moving quickly, some at the school, some at their home, and some at Bella's house. _'Why would they be at Bella's house?'_

Edward had been trying to block Alice out, the endless stream of visions were exhausting him. While she found it exciting and bordering on gossip material (she just couldn't share it yet), he found it tiring to keep up with the rapidly growing list of questions about this upcoming situation. He did hear her last thought though and his protective nature concerning Bella prompted him to snap his head towards her and hiss, "Who's at Bella's house?"

"Just the new girl," she shrugged, before lowering her voice to a whisper, "and Jasper."

She needn't have bothered, with their vampire-hearing, the whole household heard her and once more, they were confused.

_'Why am I always with her? In every vision Alice has, I seem to be there. What is going on with this girl?'_

"But why are they there?"

"I don't know, they're in a bedroom. It's not Bella's and from the décor I'd assume it isn't Charlie's. Unless he has quite feminine taste," she laughed and she pranced out of the room.

The other Cullens scattered, returning to where they had been previously. Emmett turned to Jasper and elbowed him, "So…in a bedroom with 'Mystery Gal', eh?" Jasper stumbled for words and his mouth open and closed before he narrowed his eyes at his brother. Emmett laughed at Jasper's glare and went back to his video game, chuckling at his brother's almost flustered state.

* * *

_Bella's House._

Edward had gone to Bella's house for the evening, they were sat in the living room watching TV when Charlie got back from work. Charlie arched an eyebrow at seeing the two cuddled up on the sofa and Edward quickly distanced himself from Bella, nearly sitting on the other end of the seat. Satisfied with this, Charlie walked through the room and into the kitchen to get a drink while calling out to Bella, "Your cousin is coming to stay with us for a while, I don't know when she'll be here though."

Edward perked up at this, _'Is this the 'Mystery Gal'? Oh God, now _I'm _doing it too…'_

"Hermione's coming?! I haven't seen her in so long! How is she? Oh I can't wait!" Bella's excitement made both of the men chuckle, she was bouncing up and down in her seat with excitement reminiscent of Alice earlier that day.

"Who is this?" Edward asked, smiling over at his girlfriend.

"Hermione! She's brilliant, you'll love her! She's my dad's sister's daughter, so she's my cousin. She lives in England so we never really get to see her. At least for the last few years…a lot of stuff has been happening…" Bella ended awkwardly, glancing up at Charlie who also looked slightly uncomfortable. This did not go unnoticed by Edward, it added to his confusion about the new girl and made a note to mention this to the rest of his family when he got home. Bella recovered quickly though and was smiling again before asking Charlie, "So when is she coming?"

"She said she'd be over as soon as possible, she mentioned that something had happened but I didn't want to push her over the phone. It seemed like that conversation would be better in person…but she'll be here in a few days probably," he sighed, taking a long sip of his drink.

_'So a mystery thing has happened to the mystery girl?'_

"Edward, you had better go," Bella said, rushing him out of his seat and towards the door, "Hermione's coming and we need to get the house presentable!"

"Bella, honey, she's family. We don't have to remodel the house for her to come over," Charlie snickered while Edward laughed gently as he pecked Bella's cheek with a kiss goodbye.

"Well where is she going to stay? We have a spare bedroom and it's full of your junk! She could get here tomorrow and then what?! Come on! Get up! Go go go!" Bella's excitement was turning over into panic and back to excitement as she thought of all the things they could do when Hermione arrived in Forks.

_'I can tell her! Can I? I mean, we don't have secrets from each other and a witch can certainly keep a secret like mine…or theirs rather…'_

* * *

It took a couple of hours to sort through the boxes of Charlie's 'junk' to make room for Hermione's things. There was plenty of shelf space, they knew she would bring her books, and Hermione had _a lot_ of books. They were just clearing away their dinner plates when they heard a loud 'POP!' from outside in the garden. Bella squealed, causing Charlie to shield his ears. She charged towards the door and wrenched it open quickly to reveal Hermione standing on the back porch. Both girls squealed again, making Charlie cover his ears once more as they hugged tightly.

"Isa!"

"'Mione!"

* * *

_The Cullen House._

"So she's Bella's cousin?" Carlisle questioned.

"She's our 'Mystery Gal'?"

"_Please_ stop calling her that, it's weird. Her name's Hermione," Edward sighed.

Emmett grinned, "_'Hermione'_? That's weird too."

"Charlie didn't seem to know when she was arriving either so-"

Edward was interrupted by Alice's loud squealing from the dining room. When the others reached her to find out what was wrong, they found that she was beaming with happiness again.

"She's here!"


	3. What Happened To The Grangers?

_Bella's House._

"Oh 'Mione I've missed you! It's been so long since I last saw you!" Bella cried, still holding onto Hermione's hand as she led her inside.

"Far too long, Isa," she hadn't called Bella by that name since her fifth year, the memory of Bellatrix Lestrange almost killing Sirius as he fell through the veil that year still haunted her. Her interactions with Bellatrix only got worse after that. Fortunately after a couple of years of the Department of Mysteries researching and testing the veil, he had come back to them, but thinking of Bellatrix for too long still chilled Hermione to her very core. She walked into the kitchen, "Uncle Charlie! How are you?" she asked, jumping into hug him.

"I'm good sweetie, how are you?" he asked, careful not to push her too soon, their phone conversation had made it clear that something wasn't right.

"I'm ok, I'll be fine," she said while wringing her hands together. "I really need to tell you what happened…" they all seemed uncomfortable as they sat at the kitchen table and Charlie and Bella looked at Hermione to begin. "I told you about the war and my part in it, well, I was a target since I'm Harry's friend and muggleborn. So because of me, my parents were a target. So about a year before the 'main event', I erased their memories of me," she paused, taking a deep breath before meeting Charlie's gaze, "I only erased myself, not you or anyone else in the family. I couldn't risk them being taken to get to me, if they didn't know me then nothing would happen to them. At least that's what I thought. I also didn't want them to have to deal with their daughter dying in a war they can't talk about, a world they didn't understand. It didn't matter anyway, I couldn't lift the memory charm when I found them again so I left them in Australia. They were really happy there, they ran a café in a little village, much more relaxed than a dental practise in London." Hermione smiled a little, her eyed filled with tears, "But Remus came to see me yesterday, his wife Tonks had been called in to investigate some Death Eater activity – they still haven't captured all of them after the war – and they had found my Mum and Dad. They killed them. I'm sorry Uncle Charlie, I'm really sorry," she started sobbing.

Both Charlie and Bella were crying softly now, Charlie gathered Hermione up in his arms, "It wasn't your fault, honey. You tried to protect them. You did everything to try to prevent this. No one should have to go through what you have. _You're so young_."

The three of them sat in silence for a while, Charlie stroking Hermione's hair to calm her as her hiccupping sobs quietened down and she stopped shaking. He wiped his eyes and smiled gently at his girls, "Now Hermione, do you want anything to eat or drink, you must be hungry after your trip across the pond. I still don't really get how this 'abbarishing' works-"

"Apparition, Dad," Bella said with a laugh.

"Yeah, that. Whatever it is, you must be hungry."

"Actually, I'm just rather tired. Apparating long distance like that used a lot of magic and it takes a lot out of you. Where can I put my things?" she asked, pulling out her small beaded bag from within her jacket.

"Oh!" cried Bella, jumping up from her seat and grabbing onto her cousin's hand. "We made your room up this evening, I can take you there now!"

"You really didn't have to go through any trouble for me," she said quietly.

"Oh hush! Where were you gonna sleep? In the shed?" Bella laughed, pulling Hermione up the stairs and into the guest room, now Hermione's.

"Well, thank you anyway," she said, taking out her wand, "do you mind?"

"No, no! Go ahead!" Hermione looked around the room, after a while she made some small movements with her wand. This was always Bella's favourite part, when she could see the magic that she was always so fascinated by. The walls changed from a bland cream colour to a pale blue, the curtains turned from thin and white to a thick, dark blue material. More of the furniture changed, becoming more _'Mione-fied _in Bella's opinion. When she was satisfied with the room she looked at Bella who was wide-eyed with wonder. Snapping out of it quickly, she clapped her hands together, "Ok then! Let's get you unpacked. Is that the only bag you brought, are you staying for a day?"

"No no," Hermione smiled, "Undetectable extension charm, go ahead, put your hand in."

Bella looked somewhat sceptically at her cousin, but reached her hand in only to find she could fit her arm in. "But it looks so light!" she exclaimed.

"Magic," said Hermione, waving her wand for emphasis.

"Oh yeah, _duh_. Do you think you could do that to my bookbag? I swear we have to carry around so many textbooks, I feel like a travelling library. Speaking of school, what are you doing about that?"

"Well I took my N.E.W.T.s this year after the war, but I haven't been to a muggle school since I was 11. I might ask Uncle Charlie about enrolling at your school if you don't mind?"

"Why would I mind?! This will be great! I can't wait for you to meet everyone! Actually, my boyfriend Edward might be coming over to visit later so you can meet him if he stops by," said Bella, blushing at the mention of Edward.

"Ah, so I finally get to meet the_ mysterious Mr Cullen_, eh?" she nudged her cousin playfully. The two girls began giggling and soon settled down to begin unpacking Hermione's bag and a trunk that she had in her jeans pocket and returned to its original size.

* * *

_The Cullen House_

"Please can I come? I want to meet her! Please please please!"

"No!" Edward replied, "Bella isn't expecting a huge Cullen family visit, you'll meet her another time."

"Yeah Alice," Emmett interjected, "it's not like we can all go up and say, "Hey, are you Hermione? Because this one had a vision of you getting all lovey-dovey with our brother here", it's a bit weird."

Jasper growled, "No one is getting _lovey-dovey_. Stop saying that. And while I'm at it, stop calling me 'Cupid'!"

"I'm leaving," said Edward as he shrugged on his coat and swiftly left the room, ignoring Alice's cries of "Take me with you!"


	4. The Witch Meets The Vampire

_Bella's House._

_'His eyes. There's something familiar about his eyes. That golden…oh…oh dear, well this is awkward."_

"Hello Edward, it's so nice to meet you. Isa has told me _all_ about you in her letters," she grinned. She decided that she would act as muggle as possible until she could talk to her cousin alone. She shook his hand firmly and turned to walk into the living room, shooting Bella a 'we need to talk' look as she passed her.

"Edward, you go sit on the couch while I help 'Mione in the kitchen," she smiled sweetly at him before hurrying after Hermione. As soon as Bella closed the door, Hermione whipped out her wand and cast a silencing charm over the room so they wouldn't be overheard.

"A vampire? Really Isa?!" she screeched.

"Wow, you're fast. That took me a couple of months at least," Bella rambled on, "though of course you'd know more about magical things and with the war and all that dark stuff going on…please don't tell my Dad, he would freak out-"

"Yes he would freak out!" she interrupted, "He'd be right to freak out! It's dangerous! I know he's 'vegetarian' or whatever but-"

Bella cut her off, "Wait, how do you know that?"

"His eyes," Hermione waved her off, "they're golden. I've met a few vampires over the years, the red eyes come from human blood but the golden eyes – you know this, I won't bore you…Isa, this is really dangerous, you could be killed."

"You're one to talk!"

"I was born a witch in a dangerous time for my kind, I did not get a vampire boyfriend when I had no real way to defend myself! It's completely different!"

"But you've met vampires and you're not dead. See, they aren't _all _dangerous!"

"Yes well it's still different, _I_ wasn't romantically involved with any of them. Well there was that one date with Sanguini but that was a misunderstanding – but that's beside the point!"

At this, Bella started laughing. "So you can date a vampire but I can't? This is the most ridiculous conversation…" she chuckled.

"I know it's stupid, but I just want you to be safe," she sighed, leaning on the counter. "I couldn't bear it if anything happened to you. Isa, you and Uncle Charlie are the only family I have now. I can't lose you too." She looked up, her eyes shining with tears.

Bella smiled sadly at her and gathered her in a hug. Speaking softly in her ear, she said, "Well I'm not going anywhere, Edward and I have been through a lot. If he was just going to kill me I don't think he would have put up with so much."

Hermione gave a short laugh before she sniffled and wiped her eyes. "Come on then," she said, waving her wand at her face to remove the redness from her eyes and any other traces of her crying outburst, "let's go talk to 'Teen Dracula'."

The two girls walked into the living room to find Edward perched on the sofa, Bella sat next to him while Hermione took the chair opposite. "Ok then, just so you know, if you hurt Bella in any way, I will end you," she said calmly, "I mean it."

Edward nodded, putting his hand on Bella's and smiling widely, "I would never hurt Bella, I love her."

"Yes, well love doesn't mean much when you're draining her dry does it?"

Edward froze. _'What? What does she know?'_ He turned to Bella, who was looking at him with a guilty expression. "Did you tell her about us?"

"No, Hermione is just…special."

He looked over at the new girl, 'Mystery Gal', who was becoming more mysterious by the second it seemed. "Special?"

"Yes," she began tiredly, "I'm a witch."

"Rituals and crystals and mumbo jumbo, that's not –" he was cut off by a very angry Hermione.

"Excuse me?! Rituals and crystals?! Mumbo jumbo?! I could hex you into another continent! See how you like that!" she yelled, waving her wand at him threateningly. "Mumbo jumbo indeed," she muttered under her breath.

"_Right_," he said smugly, leaning back in his seat, "go on then, do your magic." Bella looked at him in disbelief. How could he, _a magical being_, be so dismissive of Hermione's magic? She looked over at her cousin and smirked, they could have fun with this. They used to play pranks on their families when they were younger and when Hermione started learning tricks from the Weasley twins, they got even worse. Hermione returned the smirk briefly, before schooling her face into a neutral expression.

"Fine then," she said, waving her wand at him and silently casting the spell. She looked troubled, though inwardly she was grinning. Bella's eyes went wide but she recovered before Edward could see.

Edward began to look even more smug, "Well, I don't _feel _any different…"

Bella got up out of her seat and walked away from Edward, "I think Hermione is just tired, she had a long journey to get here. You should go Edward, I'll see you tomorrow." She could barely look at him without laughing, she held Hermione's hand and ran up the stairs and into Hermione's room as Edward let himself out. When the doors were shut and the silencing charms completed, the girls collapsed into a fit of laughter.

"Oh it worked!"

"Of course it worked! 'Brightest witch of her age' over here," Hermione said with a smile and a curtsy.

"He'll be embarrassed," Bella said between giggles.

"And so he should be!" Hermione replied with a loud laugh.

* * *

_The Cullen House._

When Edward arrived back at the house, he still wasn't sure what to make of Bella's cousin. He wanted to marry Bella which meant he had to love her family too, but this girl was insane. He didn't understand how Jasper could become involved with a girl who was bat-crap-crazy. When he entered the living room he was met by the other Cullens, they looked at him with wide eyes, stifling their laughter or trying to hide their smiles.

"So how did it go?" asked Esme.

"She's not a threat. I don't think. Crazy though. Really! I thought Bella was nuts to be getting involved in this," he gestured to himself and the coven, "but her cousin is another level of crazy!"

"What do you mean?" she asked, her eyes sparkling with concealed mirth.

"She said she was a witch. Started waving a stick around." It was then that he noticed Emmett's full blown grin, the others were doing a better job at hiding theirs but Edward could hear the laughter in their thoughts. "What is going on? What's so funny?"

Alice sauntered up to him holding a mirror out to him, "You might want to check your reflection before you call the witch crazy next time."

Edward looked into the mirror still not believing that a crazy woman with a stick could do anything. But when he looked he was shocked at what he saw. His hair was not its usual colour, in fact, it was bright pink with hideous green stripes running through it. He was speechless. Combing his free hand through his hair he tried to come up with an explanation for this. But there wasn't one. She was a witch. _'Messed this one up then, haven't I?'_

Emmett exploded with laughter and the others joined soon afterwards. Edward aimed a glare at them and then turned back to his reflection trying to think of something to fix his hair. "Oh I love her!" Emmett cried, "I don't know her yet but I love her! Where's my camera? I need to take his picture. I might even start a scrapbook of Edward's embarrassing moments, I can spend _hours_ on that!"

"So when can we meet her?" Carlisle questioned.

"I don't know."

"Next week," Alice chirped, "she's coming to school with us, she and Charlie are going to get her enrolled tomorrow."

"You can see that but you can't see her being a witch? A witch that knows about _us_?"

Rosalie perked up at this, "She knows about us? Did your _girlfriend _tell her?"

"No, Bella didn't tell her," he replied.

Carlisle chimed in again, "The wizarding world is not as oblivious to our kind as we are to theirs, apparently," he said, looking pointedly at Edward's hair. "She may have met or dealt with other vampires before and been able to work out what Edward was."

"Why would she have had to deal with vampires?"

"Well from what I've heard from some friends in Europe, there has been a lot of unrest in magical Britain lately. An all-out war really. If I'm right, Hermione may not be the naïve little crazy girl you thought she was. She might even be a war hero, her family isn't magical, Bella and Charlie aren't, as I understand it, those from non-magical families have it worst. They're targeted by dark wizards. Hermione would have to put up one hell of a fight to make it out of that alive," he finished quietly, leaving the family to wonder what exactly their 'Mystery Gal' had been through.


	5. The First Day At Forks High

A.N.

I'm sorry if this is slow moving, I just wanted to set things up and then this all happened…yeah…thank you to everyone who has read or reviewed or followed or favourited, it's so sweet and I really appreciate it. Also, there's a time skip here. Hermione is about to start school with Bella and the Cullens, she hasn't seen the Edward since the pink hair incident – if that was a Thursday, she and Charlie could enroll on Friday and I'm pretending that schools are super speedy so she could start the following Monday. Anyway, on with the story…

* * *

_Bella's Car, School Car Park._

_'I can do this. I've been to a new school before, it's not so bad. But I was 11 then…No. It'll be fine! Come on! I've survived Potions with Snape! The teachers here aren't going to call me an 'insufferable know-it-all'. Oh no, what if they do? No. This won't kill me. If Death Eaters and battle wounds can't kill me then a few teenagers won't be a problem. I can do this.'_

Hermione turned to Bella, "Isa, I can't do this!"

Bella laughed and turned off the engine, "Yes, you can. It'll be great! We'll go to the office and get your schedule, then go meet the Cullens –"

"You mean the vampires who probably hate my guts?"

"They don't hate you! Edward was sore about it but his hair went back to normal after a couple of hours," she started giggling again at the thought of her pink-haired boyfriend. "Anyway, Alice told me on Friday that the rest of them can't wait to meet you. Emmett wants you to show him more magic and see if you can turn Edward's hair blue permanently."

"Ok," she sighed, relaxing slightly, "so it won't be that bad. But I haven't been to muggle school in so long! I've already read the textbooks-"

"Which means you're more prepared than any other student here…"

"-but we do different lessons at Hogwarts! I mean Arithmancy could maybe relate to Maths and Potions is somewhat similar to Chemistry, but there certainly isn't an equivalent to Transfiguration or Care of Magical Creatures! I mean, there aren't exactly any hippogriffs lurking about the school! It's going to be weird and I'll be the strange new girl!"

"Well I only just stopped being the new girl and I've been here a couple of years. People will stare," she said, pausing slightly as Hermione looked completely panicked, "but then they'll get to know you and the staring will stop. Mostly…mostly it'll stop. Now come on, let's go." She began shooing her out of the car, a quick glance around the car park confirmed that there_ were_ people staring, so Bella hurried Hermione inside to the main office.

* * *

_Edward's Car, School Car Park._

"Is that her?" Emmett asked.

"Yes that's her, who else would be in the car with Bella?" Edward replies, running his hand through his hair for the hundredth time that morning – still not pink, that was good.

"Hey, I'm just asking. She's very British. I like her. Make nice with her so I have a cool British friend," he said, poking Edward slightly as he did.

"I can't_ hear_ her, " Edward observed casually.

"Oh, I like her even more! Is it a family thing or a witch thing or can she teach me how to keep you out of my head?" Emmett asked playfully.

The rest of the Cullen 'children' were in the backseat of the car and listening intently to the conversation they could overhear between Bella and Hermione. Jasper looked uncomfortable, he knew that he was going to like this girl, but he didn't even know her yet. He knew that she was a witch and was a part of Bella's family, but he didn't know her. The things that made her smile and laugh, or the things that made her sad, he didn't even know what she looked like!

"What's a hippogriff? Is it like a hippo? She learned how to take care of hippos? Why couldn't we be witches?" Alice's excitement was catching, no doubt due to Jasper sharing in it, "I mean, really, how many times can I sit through a Biology class or a Algebra lesson and not want to claw my eyes out? Especially now that I know there are kids learning how to look after hippos!"

Rosalie sighed, "I really don't think they spend much time with hippos."

"They're going in now, we've been sat in here a while. That probably looks weird," she looked around to see her siblings staring at her with a look that said 'Really? Us? The weird kids?' and continued, "we should go or we'll be late for class."

* * *

_English Class_

Hermione made her way to her first class, English Literature. She only had a couple of the same classes as Bella as the tests she had taken on Friday had allowed her to be placed in some advanced classes. She opened the door to the classroom and gave her slip to the teacher, Mrs Owen, to be signed. Mrs Owen looked at her and introduced her to the class, students were still filing in so it wasn't too intimidating, "This is Hermione, she's a new student, let's all try make her feel welcome here in Forks."

"Thank you, erm, where should I sit?"

The teacher smiled at her and looked at the empty seats available. "Let's see…there's a free seat over there, that'll be fine," she said, pointing at the desk at the back next to the window. Hermione made her way over to the desk and pulled her books out of her bag. The class was taking a while to settle down so Hermione looked out of the window. Forks was very green. There were lots of trees and…green nature things. The weather was almost gloomy, which, when you have lived in Scotland for most of the past 7 years, is almost a welcoming sight. It felt like home. And Forks had something that Hogwarts never did, she had family here. Her parents were not allowed to visit Hogwarts, even when she was in the hospital wing, petrified, or recovering from Dolohov's curse. Why they couldn't visit her then was still a mystery to her. A movement to her right stirred her from her thoughts and she looked to the student at the desk beside her. He had blonde hair, not platinum blonde like Malfoy or Luna, and it was curly, not like hers, more relaxed and wavy. He had scars, they were barely noticeable but after the war, when they all had scars, she began to notice them more. She then saw his eyes, she recognised that honey golden colour. "Hello," she offered.

He smiled, "Hello. I'm Jasper, this is Emmett," he said, gesturing to the boy at the desk on the other side of him.

"So…you're Edward's family?"

"Yes we are," Emmett beamed, "and we are very pleased to meet you! Can you make the hair thing last longer? It took me so long to find my camera and it was already fading by the time I got him pinned down long enough to take the picture!"

Hermione laughed, relaxing slightly, although she knew she should be more guarded, she felt at ease with them. It was nice not to have to keep her secrets from the _entire_ student body. And from what Bella had told her, she and the Cullens were pretty close. Mrs Owen was starting to teach the class, so Hermione turned her attention to her books and felt much calmer about the whole muggle high school thing.

_'So maybe I _can_ do this.'_

* * *

Jasper could barely focus on the lesson. His thoughts and eyes kept floating back to the girl beside him. _'She is beautiful.'_ With her deep chocolate brown eyes and her dark curly hair, she was all he could think about. Her tinkling laugh sent a pleasant shiver down his spine. The way that she smiled made him forget his own name. _'It's not even bloodlust. I just want to be around her.'_ The thought calmed him, he knew that he was a dangerous monster, but knowing that he didn't want any harm to come to her settled this feeling of panic. The feeling of panic he got whenever he felt he was about to lose his control.

When the class was over, he looked back to Hermione. Her hair fell into her face as she leaned down to pack her bag and Jasper had to stop himself from brushing it back behind her ear. _'Because that wouldn't be weird at all, would it?' _"So what have you got next?" he asked, trying to sound casual.

"Erm," she tried to remember but then dug her schedule out of her pocket, "Algebra with Mr Winters. Where is that?"

"That's near where I'm headed, I can walk you if you want. It's not a big place but it's pretty easy to get lost if you don't know your way," he said, smiling at how easy it was to talk to her. This wasn't something that he did, the smiling and the talking with people other than his family. In fact, their short exchange was already drawing the attention of a few students.

Hermione laughed again, sending that familiar shiver down his spine. She thought about Hogwarts and the many times the staircases seemed to conspire against her to make her lose her way and end up late to class. "Oh it shouldn't be too bad, but if you really don't mind?"

"No! Not at all! I'd be happy to help!" Jasper answered quickly and perhaps a bit too loudly, if the odd looks from other students were anything to go by. From the corner of his eye he could see Emmett smirking again. He tried to hurry Hermione out of the classroom before his brother did anything to embarrass him. He wasn't fast enough. Emmett clapped him on the shoulder as he made his way to the door and stage-whispered, "Way to go there, lover-boy!" Jasper was lucky that Hermione hadn't heard, but unlucky enough that a few others had heard and were looking at him in shock. It was unheard of that any of the Cullens liked anyone. What was it about the Swan family that had Edward with Bella and Jasper after the new girl, Hermione, after only an hour of having met her?

"Thanks, brother," Jasper hissed through gritted teeth before relaxing his face once more.

"Jasper?" she called from the hallway, "Are you coming?"

"Yes, darlin'" he said before he could stop himself. He could see the amusement in Emmett's face and stared awkwardly at Hermione for a second. If he could blush, he would be doing so furiously. He looked at the floor nervously and cleared his throat, "So…let's get you to Algebra."

As he walked with Hermione towards her class, he could still hear Emmett and his booming laughter, apparently Alice wasn't far and had overheard the last part of the conversation. They both found it terribly amusing. Apparently, Hermione did too. She smiled gently at him and he could see that she was blushing. A soft giggle burst from her lips and at his questioning glance she asked, "Darlin'?"

_'Oh God no.'_

"Oh, ha…yeah…sorry about that," he said, rubbing his hand over the back of his neck awkwardly, "I don't know where that came from…here you are," they came to a stop outside her class.

"Thank you Jasper," she said as she opened the door, "and you can call me darlin' any time," she winked and stepped into the classroom.

_'Well…ok then…'_


	6. Babysitting? Who? What?

_The Swan House_

"Hey girls," Charlie called as Bella and Hermione walked through the door, "so…how was the _dreaded first day_?"

"It was better than I had expected. It was a bit strange but people were really nice," Hermione smiled.

"Yeah, I almost forgot how much of a brainiac you are, panicking this morning that you wouldn't do well and then you show us all up in Biology!" Bella laughed, walking upstairs and gesturing to Hermione to follow, "We'll just get started on our homework, are you working tonight or will we see you for dinner?"

"I'll be here," Charlie answered, "it's my evening off. Go on then, don't work too hard."

When the girls reached Bella's room they took out their books and fell onto the bed. After a while, Bella couldn't take the silence anymore, "So…what did you think of the Cullens?"

"They were great. I only really talked to Jasper and Emmett but they were really nice, I may have overreacted about the whole _vampire thing_ before," she finished quietly.

"You weren't overreacting, you were worried. I remember freaking out when you said that creepy wizards were after you!"

"Perhaps, but they all seem very in control. More so than any other vampires I've met."

"Anyway, enough of that. You realise that we haven't gossiped in a long time. I mean _a long time_," she grinned mischievously. "So what was happening in England? Any boys? What was that guy's name? Don?"

"Ergh,_ Ron_," Hermione corrected. "He asked me to marry him."

"What?! How did this not come up before?! What did you say?"

"I didn't say anything! We weren't even dating! We kissed once and it was horrible, I've had dental exams more pleasurable than that. And I was staying with his family which meant that I had to put up with him constantly. And his mother! My word, his mother was always pushing us together in her quest for a hundred grandbabies. I love Mrs Weasley but no. No!" she laughed, squirming at the thought of Weasley-Granger babies.

"You didn't say anything?" Bella asked incredulously, "How do you just not answer that question?!"

"Well," Hermione's smile faltered, "Remus came in and asked to speak to me, and then he told me about my parents…"

"I'm sorry 'Mione."

"It's ok. They wouldn't have wanted me to mope over them, I just need to do my best to make them proud," she declared, closing her book and smiling again. At that moment, a large silver werewolf bounded through the window and ran towards the girls, "Well speak of the devil," Hermione chirped.

Bella stared at the animal, it was like nothing she had ever seen. It's large, wiry body moved gracefully through the air. It somehow looked gentle rather than menacing. "Uhm...'Mione…what is this?"

"Oh, of course! Sorry! This is Remus' patronus. You can use them to send messages quickly over long distances."

The wolf settled in front of Hermione and a human voice sounded from its mouth, "Hermione, hopefully this hasn't come to you at a bad time, but it's an emergency of sorts. Don't worry, nothing bad has happened, I just…need your help…" Bella snickered quietly, if it was possible for a werewolf/mist/messenger to look awkward, this would be is what it would look like, "erm…yes. If there's a fireplace at the house then it might be best if you floo-call me and then I can come and talk to you…thank you…maybe..yes.._Oh Gods._ Bye!" and with that, the animal faded into a silver mist.

"Remus has never been good at asking for favours," Hermione chuckled, thinking about how her calm and collected former professor can turn into a bumbling mess when he feels he's imposing on someone. "Isa, could I use your fireplace?"

"Erm…yes?" Bella answered, very confused as to why she and the werewolf were so focused on fireplaces.

"Thank you!" Hermione said as she hopped off the bed and skipped through the house towards the fireplace with Bella following close behind. "Uncle Charlie?" she called.

"Yes 'Mione?" he answered.

"Is it alright if I connect the fireplace to the floo network?"

"I'm just going to say yes because I don't know what that means."

"Ok," she turned to the fireplace, pulling her wand from the holster up her sleeve and tapping away at the bricks inside the fireplace. Charlie and Bella looked on in the confusion they were so used to feeling around Hermione. After she was finally satisfied, she sat back and waved her wand, producing a fire into which she threw some powder. The muggles took a step back as the flames turned green and grew bigger, rushing forward in panic as Hermione stuck her head into the fire.

"Hermione! What are you doing?!" Charlie asked, pulling her back.

"I'm calling Remus…" she said, looking confused as to why they had pulled her back. Then it dawned on her, "I've never done this with you, have I? I always owl my letters to you or send them in the muggle post. Sorry, I should have explained. It's perfectly safe, I swear. Watch," she smiled before plunging her head back into the fire. It looked like she was talking to someone but neither Charlie nor Bella could hear her. Hermione briefly pulled her head out and turned to them, "Is it ok if Remus pops in?"

"The wolf?" Bella asked, remembering Remus' wolf patronus visiting not half an hour ago.

"Yes, the wolf. Well, no. He's a person…" she continued under her breath, "most of the time."

"Yes he can come, you really need to explain more of this stuff to us. I forget how cool this magic deal is," Charlie grinned.

"Great!" Hermione popped her head back into the fire quickly before pulling out and backing up a couple of steps. They all watched as the flames grew even taller and a man stepped out. He waved his wand over his clothes and the fine layer of soot vanished from them. "Remus!" Hermione squealed before leaping up to hug him.

"Hermione, dear, it's been less than a week since I saw you," he laughed. He nodded to the others before looking back to Hermione.

"Well I missed you, I did move around the world you know," she said, placing her hands on her hips.

"That's part of why I'm here. But first, allow me to introduce myself. I'm Remus Lupin," he said, offering a handshake to Charlie, "and you must be Hermione's uncle?"

"Yes I am," Charlie said while shaking his hand, "and this is my daughter Bella."

"Ah yes, Hermione told me all about you." He smiled but looked quite tired. He turned back to Hermione and sighed, "Erm…I really needed to ask you a favour".

Bella and Hermione shared a small smirk, Remus was acting a lot like his awkward werewolf. Although human-Remus was focused on his hands, rather than shuffling his paws as wolf-Remus had done.

"It's the full moon on Friday," Hermione said plainly. "Do you need me to babysit Teddy?"

"I'm sorry, it's just that Tonks is away with Harry on another auror mission and he's asking for Aunt Mynee and-"

"Remus," she interrupted, "it's fine. Honestly. I love Teddy! As long as it's ok with Uncle Charlie then I'd be more than happy to babysit anytime. Uncle Charlie?"

"Yep sure, I'm at work that evening anyway and if there's a kid in the house it means that I won't have to lecture you on the irresponsibility of house parties," Charlie joked.

"Oh yeah, Dad, because we're_ such_ party animals in this house." Bella laughed, slapping him on the shoulder.

Remus breathed a sigh of relief, "Thank you, you've no idea how grateful I am. I left him with the twins last time and I was plucking feathers out of his hair for days."

"Well you left him with the twins, what did you expect? You're lucky he didn't get into the Puking Pastilles again," they shared a laugh.

"Ergh, that was…messy. Anyway, I'd best be off, Teddy's got a play date with Victoire. I swear, Molly is even trying to match-make toddlers."

After another hug and a wave to the Swans, Remus departed through the fireplace. Bella whispered to Hermione, "Didn't you have a Professor Lupin at Hogwarts?"

"Yes, that was him," she whispered back. Charlie figured that this was probably girl-talk and left the room.

Bella looked impressed, "Wow, no wonder you had a crush on him. I wish our teachers were like that." Hermione gasped and slapped Bella's shoulder playfully. "I asked Alice to come over on Friday so we could talk properly, you know, outside of school where we can't be overhear us…is that ok with Teddy around?"

Hermione shrugged, "I guess so, he's around all kinds of magical people and he's met vampires briefly before. If anything happens, I've got my wand, we'll be ok."

* * *

_The Cullen House_

"Who was that child?" Edward asked.

"I don't know, Hermione knows him," Alice answered. She had just had a vision of the Cullens, the Swans and a mystery toddler sitting in Bella's living room. "I think we're babysitting on Friday though."

"Babysitting? Who? What?" Rosalie questioned, for once excited about Alice's vision.


	7. Revelations, Mates and Werewolves

_The Cullen House_

Esme walked past Jasper's room, looking in the open door as she did. She took a step backwards and poked her head into the room, "What's going on in here?"

Jasper stood up from the bed and marched up to her, "Alice has decided that I don't know how to dress myself and is insisting on playing dress up!"

Esme and Alice chuckled at his outburst. Alice held a dark blue plaid shirt up to his chest and said, "Haven't you noticed anything _special_ about Hermione?"

"Well yes, I have," he sighed, "why are you all pushing this so much? It's strange. It's-"

"How does she smell, Jasper?" she interrupted.

"What? She smells like honey…and old books – not in a gross, dusty way but a nice, library smell –"

"Is there anything about her blood?"

"No! There's no – no. No. No? Why don't I want her blood? It took a long while for me to be around Bella for any amount of time and now all I can think about is seeing Hermione. Not drinking from her or anything like that. _What is that?_" Jasper was now pacing the room, trying to work out for himself what the others already knew.

Esme put her hand on his arm, "It's because your need to protect her is stronger than that desire. She's your mate."

"M-my mate?" he stuttered, "I have a mate? No one thought to tell me this before? She's my mate?"

The two women looked worriedly at each other, Jasper had never really panicked like this before and with his ability, well, a clan of freaked out vampires running through the town would _not_ go unnoticed. Sending a quick mental message to Edward to tell him to try keep the others calm in hopes that that would quell Jasper's hysteria, the women edged towards him to find out more about his worries.

"Jasper, honey," Esme tried, "is there something more bothering you?"

He looked up at them and they were shocked to see the vulnerable look in his eyes. He seemed almost childlike in that respect. "What if…What if she doesn't accept me? I'm a monster! She's perfect and amazing! She can do magic and annoy Edward for cryin' out loud!"

Alice rushed forward to calm him down yet again, "Jazz, I've seen it. She likes you. She might not understand the whole 'mate' situation, well actually she might, we can never underestimate this one." She smirked, "she doesn't see you as a monster. She sees you as a man, a man who calls her darlin'."

Alice began laughing and Jasper shared a soft smile with Esme, his mother for all intents and purposes. Esme was thrilled that he would finally have someone to share his life with and ran forward to hug him. "Ok you two, get ready and rustle up the others or you'll be late for school, and we don't want that do we?" she wiggled her eyebrows mischievously at Jasper who went wide-eyed as he thought of what his first class was - English with Hermione – and pulled the plaid shirt that Alice had picked out on over his t-shirt and grabbed his bag while heading out of the door and down the stairs.

"Come on or we'll be late!" he shouted to the other Cullens.

* * *

_Forks High School._

Jasper and Hermione talked throughout the lesson that morning, when the bell rang and they started to leave he looked at her oddly, "You smell…strange today…"

"It's strange that you're smelling me today," she smirked.

"Oh, erm…sorry," he said sheepishly, "it's just -"

"I get it Jasper, it's natural for you to do that," she said, patting him on the arm, "I was kidding. Don't worry about it. What do you mean 'strange' though?"

"Like a dog."

"Wow, you know how to charm a lady," she joked.

"No no! That's not what I meant! You smell like you, with the honey and the…" he trailed off for a second before continuing, "but then there's something different. Canine, wild almost…" he mused.

"Oh! That'll be Remus. I forgot about that, I'm wearing the same jacket as I was yesterday when he hugged me-" Hermione was cut off by a low, feral sounding growl that erupted from Jasper's throat. He coughed awkwardly in an attempt to cover it up but it was no use. "Erm…what was that?"

"Nothing! It was nothing! Well, I've got Chemistry so I'll see you later," he said, rushing away down the corridor.

* * *

"So he just growled at you?"

"Yes! We were just talking and then he growled at me and ran off!"

Hermione, Bella and Alice were in the cafeteria, waiting in line to get their lunch. While Hermione and Bella seemed confused by Jasper's behaviour after English class, Alice looked amused by her brother's actions but she hid this carefully from the other two girls. They grabbed their food and headed to the table where Edward, Emmett and Rosalie were already seated.

"Well did he say anything before that?" Alice inquired.

Hermione looked down at her lunch tray awkwardly but smiled. "Yes he did actually, he said that I smelled different today. Like a dog."

Bella snorted into her cup of water as the rest of the table chuckled, Edward silently handing her a napkin to clear up her water. "Thanks Edward. Why would he say that?"

"Because she does," Emmett answered through a mouthful of his sandwich.

"Emmett!" Bella cried, the others just looking amused.

"Isa, I do. Remember Remus came over yesterday?" she looked at Bella who nodded in understanding, "His scent is still on me apparently," she shrugged.

At the mention of Remus, the Cullens all exchanged glances. Alice looked confused as in all of her visions it seemed that Hermione and Jasper were getting on great. And their connection…_'But she's his mate! She can't have a boyfriend!'_

Alice schooled her face into a friendly expression, "So what did you tell Jasper about your dog-breath?" she asked cheekily.

"Well I'm wearing the same jacket as I was yesterday when Remus hugged me and I said that then he growled and rushed off!"

"Oh. So is Remus your boyfriend then?" she probed, the Cullens all leaning forward, waiting for her answer. They were startled as Hermione and Bella started laughing.

"Is Remus my…? No! No he's not! He was my professor in my third year at…" she trailed off looking around at the students nearby, "my old school…" she finished. "He came over to ask me to babysit on Friday," she explained.

Rosalie perked up when she heard this, "So this is the child?"

Hermione and Bella looked confused, they hadn't told the Cullens about their teeny-tiny visitor on Friday. "What do you mean?"

"Well, Alice saw…erm…"

Alice huffed out a sigh and said, "We might as well tell you now, some of us have special…abilities," she lowered her voice so as not to be overheard, "I can see the future sometimes – you make my head fuzzy so I hope you're happy – Edward can hear thoughts – you and Bella have some weird immunity though which I am extremely jealous of, by the way – and Jasper can…influence emotions." Hermione looked at her in astonishment, so Alice continued, "I saw us babysitting on Friday. I didn't want to mention anything so as not to freak you out but it seems that _someone_," she paused, looking pointedly at Rosalie, "can't keep her mouth shut when it comes to kids I thought I might as well come clean."

Hermione sat quietly for a few minutes, picking absently at her salad as she tried to process that information. "Thank you for telling me," she said, "although I don't know why I make your head fuzzy, Alice, I trained myself in Occlumency a couple of years ago which kind of stops people from getting into my head, so that'll be why Edward can't hear me. Although I don't know about Isa…she has always been a bit weird," she smirked as Bella shoved her good-humouredly.

"Why did you have to keep people out of your head?" Emmett asked.

"I know things that other people wanted to find out," she answered cryptically and left it at that. "But the child that Alice saw was Teddy, Remus' son. I'm his godmother and since his mother works away a bit and his father is a werewolf, I babysit over some full moon nights."

"Wait. Back up a minute there. He's a _werewolf_?" Emmett whispered quickly.

"Yes. That's why I smelled of dog apparently," she smiled, "he's harmless really. Provided he takes his potion and goes out for a run. Sirius goes with him most of the time and they play. It's quite adorable really."

"So Jasper's mate runs with werewolves eh?" he said, leaning back in his chair and staring at her in wonder.

_"Mate?!"_ she squeaked.

The Cullens all turned and glared at Emmett. "So I guess we weren't supposed to mention that part then?" he said, fidgeting with his hands.

They sat in silence for a while as they stared at each other and then their untouched plates. They were so distracted by their newfound awkwardness that they didn't sense the new presence behind them until a new voice spoke, "So what's going on guys?"

As one, their heads all turned to face the source of the voice. Hermione paled as she met the gaze of Jasper Hale. _Her mate._


	8. Prince Charming

_**Last chapter**: As one, their heads all turned to face the source of the voice. Hermione paled as she met the gaze of Jasper Hale. __**Her mate.**_

* * *

_Cafeteria, Forks High School._

"Hello Jasper!" Hermione squeaked, she couldn't think of anything else to say other than, "Goodbye Jasper!" and she rushed out of the cafeteria, leaving the others to their uncomfortable silence.

"Does anyone want to tell me what that was about?" Jasper asked, stunned by Hermione's sudden departure.

His siblings all turned to Emmett who shifted uncomfortably in his seat, "Well…the thing is…I kind of let slip that…erm…"

"Hermione is your mate?!" Bella whisper-shrieked – if there was such a thing.

Jasper stared wide-eyed at Bella, then turned to glare at Emmett. "You told her?" he said coldly, "That is _not_ something you spring on someone! You maybe wait until you've known them for longer than _two days_ before dropping the 'Our souls are kind of bonded, is that ok with you?' bomb on someone. Now if you'll excuse me," he growled, "I have to go find her and sort this out." Jasper stalked out of the cafeteria once again on the receiving end of many the many stares of other students. The Cullens never fought, Jasper barely showed emotion, _who_ was this girl that was changing everything up?

He knew that he needed to find her, but where would she be? She mentioned before that she liked to read and spent a lot of her time at her old school in the library, so maybe that was worth a shot? As he got closer to the library, he could smell her again. The sweet scent of honey and books filled his nostrils and he gave a quiet, contented sigh before opening the door. He looked around for a while, searching the stacks before he reached an alcove with a couple of tables. There she was, seated at a desk staring intently at a textbook, she reached up to push her hair out of her face and he longed for it to be his hand that combed through those unruly curls. He wanted nothing more than to stay by her side forever.

_'Ok, maybe I'm getting a bit creepy about this whole 'mate' thing…'_

He made his way over to her desk and sat in the seat beside her, he knew that she had noticed him but waited for her to start. "Hello Jasper," she said quietly.

"Hey Hermione," he smiled, "I'm sorry about what Emmett said before. He can be such a-"

"Is it true?" she cut him off gently, peering up at him through her hair.

"Yes, it's true. I just found out about it this morning. I'm not going to try to push you into anything. I'm not damning you to a life of shadows and darkness or anything, but…I…I do like you."

"I like you too, Jasper," she beamed.

"But…I – I thought…" he stammered, "what about Remus?"

She smiled at him, "Is that why you growled at me?!"

"Well…kind of I mean, I like you and I had just found out about the whole 'mate' thing and then I hear you've got this boyfriend and I can smell him all over you and-"

She interrupted him by placing her finger over his lips. _'She's touching me. She's touching my face. She's touching my lips…'_ He focused back on her as he heard the delightful sound of her laughter, though a quieter version of it as they were still in the library. "Jasper, Remus is my friend. He was my professor at Hogwarts. You smelled him on my jacket, not 'all over me'," she gently chided, "he was asking me to babysit his son on Friday. I was under the impression that you would be there too?"

Jasper could barely form words, he blinked at her a few times before replying, "Yes, I'll be there. I'll definitely be there."

The bell rang and the library became slightly louder as the other students started to make their way to class.

"Good," she said as she put the textbook back in her bag, "I'm looking forward to it." She leaned in and pressed a gentle kiss to his lips, "Goodbye Jasper."

He watched her leave and wave a quick goodbye to him before he breathed a soft, "Goodbye Hermione."

* * *

_Bella's House._

Hermione was scouring her magical textbooks for anything relating to vampire mates, she knew about werewolves and their mates, both from her schoolwork and general curiosity after talking to Tonks about it. She was happy but slightly apprehensive about it, she had just turned down Ron's proposal and she got the feeling that this was a bigger deal. Granted, she wasn't attracted to Ron in the slightest and she was _definitely _interested in Jasper in that way, but she wasn't sure if she was ready for that. Especially without knowing what was involved. Remus had bitten Tonks, not to make her into a werewolf but to mark her. Would it be different with Jasper? Would he mark her or change her? She found it almost unsettling that she didn't seem to mind either option. She had only known him for two days yet she felt a deep yet easy connection with him, that hadn't happened with Viktor or Oliver during their relationships a while back. She could see herself living as he did, she had grown used to the idea of a long life seeing as wizards and witches live for far longer than the average muggle, but to stay the same age, forever frozen at 19 was a strange concept.

_'Aha! There you are!'_

She had found a passage in an old textbook on magical bondings and rituals which explained the details about vampire 'mating' rituals. Bella walked into her cousin's room to find her staring at the old tome, "Whatcha lookin' at?"

"He has to bite me. He has to change me." Hermione pointed at the passage and looked over to her and Bella began to read aloud, "health of both parties will deteriorate slowly, leading eventually to the mate's agonising death. The process starts from the moment they share a kiss-'" Hermione paled. "Wait he kissed you?"

"No, I kissed him! It was just a small kiss! A peck more than anything! Oh gods, I'm going to die!" Hermione started pacing in front of her window, "It's like a fairytale gone wrong! I kissed Prince Charming and now I'll die!"

"Aw, he's Prince Charming," Bella cooed childishly.

"Zip it, Isa! Now is not the time!"

"Calm down 'Mione, you'll wear a hole in the floor. I'll call Edward and ask him to bring the others over. Actually, it might be best to go over there, then you can meet Carlisle and Esme too…"

"This is not the time to be playing meet the parents!_ I. Am. Going. To. Die._ And all because I couldn't keep my lips to myself!" She cried, collapsing face first into her pillow as Bella dialed the phone to talk to Edward.

* * *

_The Cullen House._

Edward hung up the phone and grabbed Jasper, pulling him into the garage.

"What? What's going on?"

"Did you kiss Hermione?"

"Yes. Well, no. She kissed me. It was just a peck, nothing to write home about. Why? Are you checking up on me? Did Alice put you up to this?" he asked, narrowing his eyes at the thought of his gossip-loving sibling.

"No. Bella and Hermione are coming over now. You and your mate are in a bit of a_ situation_ because neither of you knew about what goes on with vampire mates." Edward pulled him out of the garage and gestured for him to follow to Carlisle's office.

They walked in and closed the door behind them. Edward began whispering to Carlisle about the situation. Carlisle's eyes opened wide as he heard what had happened. "Oh this is not good Jasper. Not good," he said, shaking his head.

"Can one of you explain what's going on? I'm a little out of the loop over here!"

"Jasper," Carlisle said carefully, "when a mated human-vampire couple kiss, it…puts a time limit on things…"

"A time limit?"

"Yes, if you leave it too long, you'll both get weaker and sicker and eventually, she'll die."

"No!" Jasper objected, "No! She can't die! What can I do? I have to make it better! She has to be ok!"

"I'm afraid there's only one way to stop that from happening, son." He sighed and rubbed his hands through his hair, "You'll have to change her…"

Jasper looked between the two men with a horror-struck expression. _'I'm supposed to ruin her life to save her life?' _The men stayed silent for a long while as they thought over what had to be done. The next noise to be heard was the sound of the nimble-footed Alice's feet charging through the house to the front door. She opened it wide before calling to the house's occupants, "They're _heeeeere_!"

* * *

_A.N. _

_I never really understood when authors would say at the end of the chapter "didn't think this would go this way" but then this happened._

_Thank you to everyone who is reading and reviewing and favouriting and following, it's really sweet, thank you :)_


	9. Hermione Gives Out Homework

**_Last chapter:_**_ Jasper looked between the two men with a horror-struck expression. _'I'm supposed to ruin her life to save her life?'_ The men stayed silent for a long while as they thought over what had to be done. The next noise to be heard was the sound of the nimble-footed Alice's feet charging through the house to the front door. She opened it wide before calling to the house's occupants, "They're heeeeere!"_

* * *

_The Cullen House._

Jasper made his way to the entrance hall where the others were, he looked up and saw Hermione talking to Alice. She seemed torn, he could feel that she was happy, but she was also extremely nervous. She met his gaze and smiled brightly at him, he felt that he had never seen someone so beautiful. 'My mate.' Her brown eyes looked like pools of melted chocolate as they met his golden ones. Her dark hair framed her face exquisitely and her cheeks flushed a light pink. She wore straight black jeans and dark blue pumps, on top she sported a navy blue cable-knit sweater, her watch on the outside of her left sleeve, he smiled at her odd habit and greeted her warmly. "Hi Hermione," he beamed as she took his hand.

"Hi Jasper…I think we need to talk about this…mate thing."

"I know, I didn't know what it involved before. Honestly! I would never want to put you in any danger, I don't want to have to-" Hermione cut him off with a hug.

"It's ok Jasper, it's my fault really, I didn't think that anything like this would happen. I really didn't expect this…" she looked at the rest of the Cullens, "so…how do we do this?"

"Well," Carlisle answered, stepping forward, "we don't have to do anything yet. You two can continue as normal for a while but there will come a time where you need to change Hermione," he finished, looking at Jasper sympathetically.

"Ok, that's good then!" Hermione chirped, Jasper brightened up at her response and so did the mood of the whole room. It seemed as though they decided to move away from the topic of the impending vampire-mate-changing situation and onto easier topics, like family life. As they didn't have to hide their pasts from the girls, the Cullens opened up about their various histories. It was a few hours before Bella and Hermione realised that they needed to head back home before Charlie started to worry and Edward and Jasper got up to walk them out. When they got outside, Edward whisked Bella onto his back and ran through the trees.

"What's going on? Where are they going?" Hermione questioned.

Jasper chuckled, "Don't worry, he runs her home sometimes. He gets to spend more time there when he does, waits until she falls asleep. It can be hours before he gets home sometimes."

"I've not noticed that, has he done that while I've been here?" she asked as they made their way towards her car.

"Probably," he shrugged.

Hermione grimaced, "That's creepy."

"That's what I've been telling him, but they're too loved-up to see the creepiness behind their actions," he smiled. "You know, you found out a lot about us all tonight, but I still don't know much about you."

Hermione unlocked her car and averted her gaze from him, "I'm just not that interesting really."

"I find that hard to believe, darlin'," he grinned as he saw a faint blush cross her cheeks, "I'd say that you are quite interesting, in my opinion." He leaned in to her over the open car door.

"I could tell you…if you'd like…" she said hesitantly, he knew that what she had to tell him wasn't good and he was flooded with concern for his mate. "You could come over later? I don't really sleep that much and my room is next to Isa's so-"

"Why do you call Bella 'Isa'?"

"I…it's…_oh Merlin_…it's complicated," she stammered out, running the palm of her hand over the inside of her arm agitatedly.

"Ok," he said quietly, "I'll be over later."

"I'll see you later," she gave him a watery smile before kissing him on the cheek, "Bye Jasper."

He watched as she ducked into the car and drove away, puzzled by what could have happened to her.

* * *

_Bella's House._

Hermione paced in her bedroom nervously, as she waited for Jasper to come over. It was pretty late so she was wearing her pajamas, a soft grey long sleeved top paired with red flannel shorts. She was still pacing when she heard a knock at the door, "Come in," she called.

"Hi," Bella said, peering around the door, "It's me. Are you ok? Edward said he could hear you walking around a lot in here…"

"That's creepy. Will you tell him that it's creepy?" Hermione responded before she heard a low laugh from the other room.

"I think he knows it's creepy," Bella smirked. "What's going on?"

"I'm going to tell Jasper."

"Tell him what?" Bella whispered, unsure if Edward could still hear her.

"Everything." Hermione stated.

Bella blinked. "Everything? As in…everything?"

"Well, almost everything. I probably won't tell him the boring stuff like sitting in the library, not much action going on in there but…the other stuff, yes. I'm telling him."

"That's great, 'Mione. You need to talk about this stuff more. I mean, I get that back in England you've all gone through it together but we're your family too. You can share anything with us."

"I know," she said, grabbing Bella in a hug. "Thank you."

Their hug was disturbed by a soft knocking on the window. Hermione opened her curtains to reveal Jasper, sitting on the limb of a tree. Bella laughed and returned to her own room after mouthing a 'Good luck' to her cousin. Hermione opened the window wide for Jasper to climb in and took a deep breath.

She cast a silencing charm on the room to prevent Edward overhearing or Charlie finding out that Jasper was in there and sat down on her bed, crossing her legs, "So where do you want to start?"

"Wherever you want to, I guess. It's your story to tell," Jasper replied, sitting down in the armchair across from her bed.

"Ok. How much do you know about the wizarding world?"

"I didn't know it even existed until you moved to town," he said, "But Carlisle said that there was something like a war recently…were you involved in that?"

Hermione barked a laugh, "Ha. You could say that." She hesitated, " I was _quite_ involved…"

Jasper didn't know how to respond. What do you say when your girlfriend tells you she was part of a secret war? She continued, "There was a man, Tom Riddle, he hated muggles and muggleborns – that's non-magical people and witches or wizards born from them – so much that he wanted to kill them all. He wanted power over all of wizarding Britain, maybe even further. He had followers, the Death Eaters, that captured, tortured, fought and killed for him. He used the darkest magics to keep himself alive, he created horcruxes." She looked up at Jasper's confused face, "When you murder someone, it splits your soul, you can put that part of your soul in an object and so long as the object is kept safe, you can never really die.

"My best friend, Harry, he was the only one with the power to end the war. He '_killed_' Voldemort when he was a baby." She let out a small laugh Jasper's surprise, "Yeah, I know. A toddler vs an incredibly powerful sixty-odd year old wizard doesn't seem like a fair fight. His parents died for him, because of their sacrifice, the killing curse rebounded from Harry and back onto Voldemort. Harry was so young, all he had from that event was a scar and a memory of screaming.

"It's all to do with a prophecy given by Trelawney, she was my Divination teacher at Hogwarts. The woman is _bat-crap-crazy_ but apparently she's right about _some_ things. Harry was the only one with the power to defeat Voldemort. I did everything I could to help Harry. There's lots of stuff. Seven years of it. We can't really go through it all tonight…this is harder than I thought it would be," she sighed, holding her head in her hands.

Jasper stared at her in wonder before moving over to sit beside her on the bed. "We don't have to go through everything tonight," he said, wrapping an arm around her, "Whatever you want to tell me, that's fine." He kissed her temple as she relaxed against him.

"I could answer your question…" she said quietly.

His brows furrowed in thought for a second, "About Bella?"

"I don't call her Bella anymore because…back home there's another Bella. Bellatrix Lestrange. This _Bella _was Voldemort's number one Death Eater. She was insane. _Certifiably insane_. And that was before Azkaban…oh, that's a prison, people generally lose their minds in there…Sirius didn't, but he was innocent and he said that the dementors didn't really bother him when he was a dog." Jasper had no idea what to make of half of that sentence, but figured that he would understand it in time so didn't want to interrupt her, "Sirius is great, you might meet him on Friday," she smiled.

"Ok, so Sirius was the first person to break out of Azkaban," Jasper's eyebrows rose almost to his hairline at this,_ 'So I'm meeting an escaped convict wizard dog person on Friday?'_, "Don't worry, like I said, he was innocent. Then the year after that, Bellatrix escaped too with some other Death Eaters. One evening we had to go to the Ministry, Harry thought that Voldemort was going to kill Sirius – he's his godfather, the closest thing to his parents he has left really, well, him and Remus I suppose – so we had to go help. But Sirius wasn't there, Voldemort had sent him a fake vision to get him there to find that _stupid _prophecy." She paused, bringing her hand to her chest as the memory of Dolohov's curse returned. "But there was a battle and the Order showed up and we hid, the Order of the Phoenix is this secret group that's not a secret anymore because _everyone and their grandma_ knows about us now, and the only one left standing was Remus. Harry saw Bellatrix kill Sirius, he wasn't the same after that. He chased after her, we could hear her chanting 'I killed Sirius Black! I killed Sirius Black!', it was horrible. Harry was distraught, he only knew Sirius for three years, one as the supposedly crazed murderer that was out to get him, another with him still on the run so he never got to see him much and the third with Sirius hidden away in his house, a bit better than in a cave but still…

"Anyway, the person most angry with Bellatrix was Sirius. He was furious. 'Not only did I have to sit through Sunday dinner with that wicked witch, she goes and kills me first chance she gets!' that was what he said," she laughed, "When we brought him back from the veil, he wanted her to pay for what she'd done, not only to him but to others. She tortured the Longbottoms into insanity, there were more like them. When Harry, Ron and myself were captured," she winced as Jasper tightened his grip on her.

"Sorry," he winced back, he had forgotten to watch his strength around her and squeezed too hard.

"It's ok, I get it. Well, _Bella_ was the one to try get information from me." She looked away from him and picked up her wand. With an intricate movement, she removed the glamours from her body, revealing the various scars that she had gained from her past. "Bellatrix gave me this," she pointed at the silver scar on her neck before looking down again, "and this," she rolled up her sleeve to reveal the jagged scar _'MUDBLOOD'._ "She went on for hours, I was close to where she left the Longbottoms when she decided that she couldn't get anything from me and passed me on to Greyback but we escaped before he could really do anything to me."

Jasper moved his finger lightly over a thin crescent-shaped scar on her knee, "What happened here?" he asked softly.

He was surprised when she began laughing, "That's…there was…" she struggled to answer between her giggles, "I was helping Fred and George de-gnome the garden last summer…one of them bit me…"

"Fred and George bit you?"

This only made her laugh more, "No! One of the gnomes!"

Jasper joined in with her laughter, "Gnomes exist? And they bite?"

"Yes, they bite. Grumpy little buggers," she smiled before sobering once more. "It's just hard to call her Bella when the only Bella I've seen is the one who hurt and killed the people I love and tortured me until I nearly lost my mind. I just can't think about that too much or else I'd…Can we stop for tonight? There's more and it's worse I just…", she went over to the bookshelf, she looked at the vast amount of books and pulled a few down before walking over to Jasper. "You can look at these, they've got more about the war and what happened. There's this one about me, it's highly sensationalised and a lot of it isn't true, for example, I never had an affair with half of the Bulgarian Quidditch team. I was friends with _one of them_ and I went to two games. That was it."

He gazed at her in astonishment, one second she was close to tears, telling him about the horrible things that had been done to her, the next she was close to tears laughing about little critters biting her knees. More than that though, she was _very_ involved in this secret war, she had books written about her. He watched as the picture of her on the cover waved at him before he stood up next to her. "I'll read these later. We can talk about it all when you're ready. I mean it, I get that there's a lot so, whenever you're ready, you can tell me."

"Thank you Jasper," she said, climbing into her bed. He pulled the covers over her and kissed her gently.

"Goodnight darlin'" he whispered as he disappeared through the window.


	10. Jasper Does His Homework

A.N. This story reached over 100 followers last chapter, thank you everyone :)

**_Last chapter:_**_ She was very involved in this secret war, she had books written about her. He watched as the picture of her on the cover waved at him before he stood up next to her. "I'll read these later. We can talk about it all when you're ready. I mean it, I get that there's a lot so, whenever you're ready, you can tell me." "Thank you Jasper," she said, climbing into her bed. He pulled the covers over her and kissed her gently. "Goodnight darlin'" he disappeared through the window._

* * *

_The Cullen House._

Emmett looked over at Jasper as he walked through the door carrying a stack of books. "What's this? Your girlfriend gave you homework?"

Jasper breathed out a laugh and tossed him the book from the top of the pile, "Kinda, give me a sec, I need to put these in my room." He dashed upstairs to put the books on his bed and returned to sit next to Emmett.

"_'The Unauthorised Biography of Hermione Jean Granger: The Brightest Witch of her Age' by Rita Skeeter_?" Emmett read, "Wow, you sure do know how to pick 'em." He said, passing the book back to Jasper.

Jasper frowned slightly at the thought of what he was about to read, "I know." He opened the book and began.

* * *

"A troll?!" he exclaimed, drawing the attention of the others in the room, "A troll. Eleven years old and she's getting attacked by a troll in the school bathroom!"

"What do you mea-" Esme tried to ask but he interrupted her quickly.

"How did it even get in?!"

Alice sighed, "Carry on reading and you'll find out, have you never read a book before, Jazz? That's sort of how they work."

"Fine," he grumbled before returning to where he left off.

* * *

"She was petrified!" was his next outburst. Emmett paused his video game and waited for Jasper to continue. "There was a 60ft snake in the school!"

"Well, anyone would be scared by that. I don't think that-"

"No! No. No. She wasn't scared, listen to this: 'It was right before the Gryffindor vs Hufflepuff Quidditch match that-'"

"What's Quidditch?"

"I don't know, some kind of sport. There are brooms and balls, it's all very weird. Never mind that, _'Hermione discovered that the creature attacking students was a basilisk. A basilisk is a giant snake that can grow to be upwards of 60ft long, looking a basilisk directly in the eye will kill any living being. Hermione realised that seeing the creature's reflection will petrify someone and set out to tell the headmaster, Albus Dumbledore.'_"

The other Cullens had gathered for what had quickly become story-time. The existence of magic still fascinated them, the idea of magical creatures such as giant killer snakes absolutely amazed them. Jasper continued, "_'On her way to Dumbledore's office, Hermione and a Ravenclaw prefect, Miss Penelope Clearwater encountered the snake but as Hermione and Penelope were carrying a mirror that they used to check around corners for the monster, they were turned to stone rather than killed.'_ This was in her second year," Jasper sighed, "She was twelve, maybe thirteen by this point actually."

"She was thirteen?! _Thirteen_ and _she_ figured out what was attacking students?" Emmett cried, amazed at what their 'Mystery Gal' had done at such a young age.

"Where were the teachers?" Carlisle asked.

"I don't know," said Jasper, "from what's here, I'd guess they were mostly at the Quidditch match…"

They all sat quietly for a while as Jasper continued reading before Esme asked, "Why was there a monster like that _in a school_?"

"It says in here that one of the school's founders kept it as a pet in a secret room."

"Well did anyone tell him to get rid of it?"

"He's been dead for hundreds of years. That snake was locked away until the 1940's when Tom Riddle let it out, he later became Lord Voldemort, he tried to take over, kinda died, then possessed a_ 'Miss Ginevra Weasley'_ who opened the chamber again in 1993, letting the snake out and leading to Hermione getting attacked," he let out a quick breath.

"Wait," Alice said, "She's mentioned the Weasley family before hasn't she?"

"Yeah, she was staying with them before she came here." Jasper answered, "She said they were like her family, if 'Ginevra' is Ginny, then she's one of her best friends…" he rubbed his eyes and then continued reading. The rest of them decided to stay in the room and wait for his next outburst of information.

* * *

The night continued like that, Jaspers reactions ranged from an angry "What kind of school is this?!" to an awestruck "Hey, did you know that goblins are real?" by the time he had finished the book, they were all amazed by what Hermione had been through. They had lived enough lifetimes to know that what she had accomplished at such a young age was nothing short of amazing. Her story was also heart-breaking. The night at the Ministry was especially telling as it was covered extensively in the book, earning itself a whole chapter. The others now understood why she called Bella 'Isa' and couldn't blame her. From the way she spoke of Sirius and her eagerness to introduce them to him on Friday, it was clear that he was important to her and that night was described in the book in such vivid detail that they could almost imagine every second of the battle and his – temporary – passing.

They soon realised that they had been reading and talking all through the night, and would be late for work and school if they didn't start getting a move on soon.

* * *

_Forks High School._

Bella and Hermione were waiting near Bella's car until school began, they were soon joined by the group of 'school-aged' Cullens. Edward kissed Bella in greeting and Jasper pecked Hermione on the cheek. "Did…did you read anything?" she asked nervously.

"Yeah, I started and then everyone kind of gathered around," he smiled as her eyes widened with worry. "I kept sort of…" he trailed off, searching for a way to explain his behaviour.

"Shouting." Emmett supplied, "He kept shouting out random things from the book so we just waited for him to explain himself."

"Oh," Hermione said, toying nervously with the end of her sleeve. "How much did you get through?"

"We got through_ 'The Unauthorised Biography…'_" Jasper grinned as she rolled her eyes, that was the one she told him contained some _unfortunate rumours_ about her.

"You had to pick that one?" she laughed, "So I guess you have a lot of questions then?" she asked as the bell rang for first class.

Emmett jumped at his chance and stole her from Jasper, throwing his arm around her shoulder and leading her to English class as Jasper followed behind a step. "Tell me, Hermione, what is this wondrous game of _Quidditch_?"

Hermione laughed at his enthusiasm and lowered her voice ready to explain, "Well there are two teams of seven, it's played up in the air on broomsticks…" the noise in the hallway shielded her voice from any other students apart from the two vampires from hearing. If anyone else caught what she said, they would be gawking at her for a lot more than just being the new girl. The _insane_-new-girl stares from other students would be a lot worse.


	11. Uncle Pads and the Wolf Cub

A.N. Teddy is going to be a little older than he would be, he's still young but walking and talking more than he would be at this point at his proper age, this will make more sense later...

* * *

**_Last chapter:_** _Emmett jumped at his chance and stole her from Jasper, throwing his arm around her shoulder and leading her to English class as Jasper followed behind a step. "Tell me, Hermione, what is this wondrous game of Quidditch?" Hermione laughed at his enthusiasm and lowered her voice ready to explain, "Well there are two teams of seven, it's played up in the air on broomsticks…" the noise in the hallway shielded her voice from any other students apart from the two vampires from hearing. If anyone else caught what she said, they would be gawking at her for a lot more than just being the new girl. The insane-new-girl stares from other students would be a lot worse._

* * *

_The Swan House._

The rest of the week had been easy, the Cullens kept coming up with more questions for Hermione and she happily answered them. She knew that they knew about the war and her part in it, but guessed that they didn't want to ask her about it and she was glad. Soon enough, it was Friday and with it came the full moon. Charlie and Bella were seated on the sofa in the living room watching Hermione as she rushed around the house with her wand, baby-proofing everything and tidying things away.

"I'm sure you don't need to safeguard the entire house," Charlie called after her as she rushed through the room again.

"Yes, yes I do!" she replied, "Once, I left him in the room for five minutes while I went to the loo and I came back and he had crashed into a bookcase and was sitting in a pile of books had eaten half a box of Sugar Quills!"

"But there are two of us here, 'Mione. Even more when the Cullens get here," Bella laughed.

"I just don't want anything to go wrong," she said, collapsing back into a chair. "I'm really looking forward to seeing him again."

"Well I'd better get to work," Charlie said as he got up and pulled on his jacket. He leaned in to Bella and whispered, "Don't let her go too crazy with the baby stuff…but be careful, I don't want to have to dig you out of a pile of books."

Bella laughed and turned to her Dad, "Don't worry, we'll be fine."

Charlie got into his cruiser and drove off. After about 15 minutes, Edward's car pulled up and they made their way to the house. Bella opened the door looking exhausted.

"Teddy wearing you out already?" Edward asked with a smile.

"He's not even here yet!" Bella exclaimed, "It's Hermione! She won't sit still for a second! Get in here, maybe you can stop her."

They walked in to see that Hermione was still running around. There was nothing left for her to magically fix, she had settled for straightening things up. Jasper walked over to her and chuckled, "Hermione, I really don't think that Teddy will be bothered if the magazines are not perfectly stacked."

"I know, but I just want it to be per-" she was interrupted by a roar from the fireplace as the flames turned green and a tall man with black hair and sharp features stepped out, carrying a sandy blonde haired child. "SIRIUS!" she squealed before diving into a one armed hug before detaching Teddy from his arms. She calmed down a fraction, "And look at you, Teddy! You're growing so big!"

"Auntie Mynee!" Teddy called in greeting and latched onto one of her long curls before he closed his eyes, as if in deep concentration. The others looked on in awe as his hair faded from the sandy blonde that Bella recognised as Remus' own, to the brown shade of Hermione's and slowly curled into a shorter version of her hairstyle. He opened his eyes and giggled at Hermione.

"Teddy's a Metamorphmagus," Sirius explained, "He can change his appearance at will. I'm Sirius, by the way. Sirius Black," he said, offering his hand to Jasper. When Jasper shook it, Sirius paled. Their eyes met and Sirius' expression faltered as he recognised that golden shade. He quickly looked at Hermione, "You sure?"

"They're safe," she smiled, "Really, if anything were to happen, I could take care of it." She giggled as Teddy fussed over her hands excitedly.

"I don't doubt that, kitten," he grinned. "Just be careful, I worry about you when you're not just over at the Burrow or at Grimmauld. Your room's still ready if you need a break from muggle school." He laughed, "Why anyone would willingly enrol in high school is beyond me."

"I'm still young, the school just thinks I'm…younger. And it's interesting anyway, I've been-"

"'Mione, I can hear all about it later. Think you could introduce me?" he hinted.

"Oh! Sorry, yes! Everyone, this is Sirius, Sirius this is Jasper, Emmett, Rosalie, Edward, Alice and Isa," she gestured to them and they waved at him as their names were called.

"Ah! So this is the famous Isa!" he smiled, "When I come back we'll have to have a long chat about 'Mione's most embarrassing childhood moments," he said with a wink to Hermione. "But I'm afraid I must dash. It's still early here but back in Blighty it's almost time, I've got to get Remus to the forest and then suited up before there's too much human scent for Moony."

A confused murmur shot through the group, they knew about Remus and his transformation but Sirius was still confusing them.

"Moony?"

"Suited up?"

Hermione yelped as Teddy yanked her hair a touch too vigorously, then said, "Moony is Remus' wolf name and Sirius, do you want to show them how you 'suit up'?"

"Gladly," he smirked and winked towards the group before he shrank down into his other form. A loud, happy bark erupted from his mouth and his tongue lolled out. Hermione put Teddy down on the rug and he crawled over to the large black dog.

"Unca Pads!" he latched onto the dogs shoulders as the Grim-like animal loomed over him and licked his face. "Argh! Ew, no!" Teddy giggled before Sirius transformed again and scooped him up.

"Ok, now I've really got to go. Bye cub." He kissed Teddy's cheek before doing the same to Hermione, "I'll be over tomorrow morning to pick him up, is that ok?"

"That's fine, Sirius. Give my best to Remus."

He stepped into the floo, "Later, kitten" he winked before shouting '_Lupin Cottage'_ and in a flash of green, he was gone.

"So…" Emmett started, "Let's get babysitting…kitten."


	12. Kitten Kit and Chocolate Frogs

**_Last chapter:_**_ He stepped into the floo, "Later, kitten" he winked before shouting 'Lupin Cottage' and in a flash of green, he was gone. "So…" Emmett started, "Let's get babysitting…kitten."_

* * *

"Don't call me 'kitten'" Hermione warned Emmett, pointing a finger disapprovingly at him as Teddy played with the collar of her shirt.

The Cullens chuckled while Emmett gasped in mock-offence, "But he gets to call you it!"

"He gets to call me it because he won't stop!" she smiled.

Alice broke in, "Why does he call you 'kitten' anyway?"

Hermione smiled shyly at them before sitting Teddy down in the sofa next to Bella, "Well, apart from Sirius being an unstoppable flirt," she paused, "I kind of am a kitten…in a way…not really, but-"

Bella cut in to her cousin's rambling, "So you're a cat? Like he's a dog and Jacob's a wolf?"

"I'm not a cat. Do you remember Remus' patronus?" Bella nodded, "Ok, my animagus form is the same as my patronus and well…" she broke off and seemed to shiver and shrink. The rest of the group looked curiously at the spot where Hermione had been until a small otter clambered up onto the coffee table. The Hermione-otter looked around the room for a few moments and then scampered over to sit next to Teddy who began to pat her head as he cooed at 'Kit'. She transformed back into her human form and smoothed out her jeans, "I'm an otter, because I'm young they call me 'Kit' like a baby otter. It's a bit condescending at times but, what can you do?" she shrugged.

Emmett elbowed Jasper, "Dude, your girlfriend's cool", to which Jasper grinned widely.

"What do you mean 'Jacob is a wolf'?" Hermione asked as she remembered Bella's earlier comment.

"Oh, Jacob can do that too. He turns into a wolf though, not on full moons so he's not a werewolf…"

"Is he a wizard?" Hermione asked, her voice getting slightly higher.

"No, he can just do it. I don't know how exactly-"

"He can just do it?!" Hermione shrieked, "Do you know how long that took me? Months! I studied for months!"

"You studied how to do that?" Edward questioned from behind Bella.

"Yes, I had a bit of time on my hands so I- not the point! He can just do it?!"

* * *

Later that evening, things were going smoothly. Edward and Bella were snuggled on the sofa, being cuddly and sickeningly lovey-dovey. Alice and Rosalie were sitting on the floor playing with Teddy, who had blonde hair that resembled Rosalie, with some toys that Hermione had transfigured for him. Emmett, Jasper and Hermione were in the kitchen as she prepared the dinner (for herself, Bella and Teddy since the Cullens only ate at school to stop other students getting suspicious and thinking the whole family had eating disorders). Emmett and Jasper were sitting at the kitchen table as Hermione waved her wand at the various pots and pans as they moved themselves around the kitchen, cooking the food in their magical way.

Both of the men were watching in amazement when Jasper piped up, "How did you learn to do this?"

"Yeah," Emmett chimed in, "I didn't think that your magical school would have Home Ec class."

Hermione gave a soft chuckle as she checked the timers, "I learned from Mrs Weasley while I was staying at the Burrow. I didn't spend much time there really, I lived with Sirius and Harry at Grimmauld Place most of the time, those two would burn cereal so I had to learn how to cook or we'd starve."

Jasper bristled slightly at this, feeling slightly awkward with the knowledge that his girlfriend lived with two men, one an 'unstoppable flirt' in Hermione's words. _'Is there anything to be jealous of? I know that they're close but the books didn't mention whether they were _that_ close…' _Jasper's thoughts were interrupted by a loud shriek from the living room. Hermione dropped the pan of pasta that she was holding and ran into room, stopping short at the sight in front of her.

Teddy was giggling happily as he ran around the room. Alice and Rosalie were standing huddled together on the coffee table glancing around the room warily as Edward and Bella had their legs tucked up on the sofa, looking around the floor cautiously.

"What's going on?" Hermione asked.

"'Mione! Thank god! Teddy had this little box and then he opened it and then-"

"A FROG JUMPED OUT!" Rosalie shrieked.

"Oh. That's it?"

"That's it?!" Alice cried "There's a frog running around and you're all _cool_ about it?"

Hermione laughed at them, "So the big bad vampires are scared of a chocolate frog?"

Jasper arched an eyebrow at her, "Excuse me miss, but we big bad vampires fear no frog. Did you say chocolate?"

"Yes, it's not real. _Accio chocolate frog_" she called and held out her hand to catch the still squirming sweet.

Teddy came to a halt in front of her and held out his hand. "Pwease Auntie Mynee? Daddy said it was ok for me to haff it."

"Of course he did, your daddy eats chocolate like it's going out of style," Hermione cast a spell at the frog to stop it from wriggling and gave it to him. The rest of the group watched open-mouthed as the toddler bit into the frog that had just been 'terrorising' them.

"I know that wizard sweets are weird but that's too creepy for words" Bella said quietly.

* * *

A.N.

Sorry if you don't like animagus-Hermione, I like stories where she has this ability and her being an otter is too cute to resist and this was mostly filler to get back into writing again and this Teddy is older than he would be in canon, since he's running around and talking properly at a little over one years old... Also sorry that this update has taken a while, I've got lots of work on at uni so I haven't had any time to write but I'm trying to get back into it! Every time I tried to write I ended up with a new story idea and now I have four stories on the go and another one that I'm starting (outlines of all –current and upcoming – are on my profile). I'll try and update soon or more regularly from now on. Thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed, followed or favourite (both the story and me (!)).


	13. An Unwelcome Surprise

**_Last chapter:_**_ Teddy came to a halt in front of her and held out his hand. "Pwease Auntie Mynee? Daddy said it was ok for me to haff it." "Of course he did, your daddy eats chocolate like it's going out of style," Hermione cast a spell at the frog to stop it from wriggling and gave it to him. The rest of the group watched open-mouthed as the toddler bit into the frog that had just been 'terrorising' them. "I know that wizard sweets are weird but that's too creepy for words" Bella said quietly._

* * *

_Bella's House._

By the time Charlie got home that night, half of the Cullens had left. He walked into the house and toed off his boots, hung up his jacket and holster and moved to the living room to see his girls. Bella and Edward were wrapped up on the couch watching an old movie with the sound turned down low so as not to disturb the others. Charlie looked over to the smaller couch to see Jasper and Hermione sitting close together, Hermione leaning her head on his shoulder as she slept calmly. Looking between them he saw a boy that he guessed was little Teddy sitting on Jasper's lap, his soft features relaxed in sleep, still holding onto his hand as Jasper looked at their clasped hands fondly.

Charlie decided that he should probably interrupt this quiet moment and stop Edward from getting too cosy with his daughter. He stepped into the room and cleared his throat. Bella and Edward jumped away from each other, an action that greatly amused Charlie, landing on opposite sides of the sofa. Jasper looked up from his hand at the man but didn't move from his position.

"Hey dad, you're home early…" Bella said quietly so as not to wake up Hermione and Teddy.

"Well I just wanted to make sure that the house didn't fall down," he laughed softly, "Any incidents?"

Edward smiled, "There was a bit of trouble with a frog…"

"Oh! Those chocolate ones? I love those! 'Mione sends them with her letters sometimes-"

"How come I've never seen them?" Bella cut in.

"Oh, erm…" Charlie began awkwardly, "You see…_oh hell_, I ate them, ok? Now how did it go? I see they're both tired out" he said, gesturing to the two asleep on the couch.

"Yeah, Hermione's been running around all day I think when she finally stopped she just zonked out," Bella replied, "And Teddy is still quite young so, you know, he gets tired kinda fast."

Edward looked over at Jasper who nodded somewhat reluctantly, "We'd better be getting home."

"Yeah" added Jasper, "Esme will be getting worried." He gently lifted Teddy off of his lap and set him down next to Hermione, the rest of them smiled as the young boy grumbled sleepily and cuddled up to his favourite aunt. Jasper pressed a kiss to Hermione's head as Edward did the same to Bella and they left quietly.

Charlie and Bella looked on at the sleeping pair before Charlie asked whether they should wake her, Bella replied, "I don't think so, it's hard for her to sleep after everything that happened."

"How much do the others know about…?"

"Everything"

He raised his eyebrows, "Everything?"

"Yeah," Bella nodded, "She trusts them, you saw her with Jasper." She smiled cheekily at her father, "You won't get rid of the Cullens that easily, Dad."

"What is it with those Cullen boys trying to steal my girls away?" he joked, "Teddy looks kinda familiar…"

Bella smiled, "He can change his appearance, when Jasper held him he changed then fell asleep so it stayed." The little boy nuzzled closer to Hermione as her hand passed drowsily through his blonde wavy hair.

* * *

The next morning, Bella was reading in the living room when she heard a knock at the door. She set down her book and walked over, when she answered it she found an excited Alice and a shy looking Jasper.

"Hi, is He-"

Bella interrupted, "She's in the kitchen. Apparently Teddy doesn't like breakfast foods judging by the cereal I found in her hair earlier."

Jasper smiled and made his way into the kitchen. Alice followed Bella back into the living room and sat on the couch beside her. Bella started, "I wasn't expecting to see you today."

"No," Alice responded, "Jasper wanted to come over and see Hermione and Teddy before he left, decided that bringing me along would make it less weird."

"He did seem quite taken with him last night"

Alice hummed in answer before lowering her voice slightly, "I think that he likes seeing her with kids. I know that it's not something that she's thinking of right now but he'll have to turn her soon and well…motherhood is not a possibility for…people like us. It's another problem for them, Edward doesn't have to turn you but that's the only option for Hermione at this point so he feels like he's taking even more things away from her."

"I meant to ask you about that before, how come Jasper has no choice when Edward does? What's different?"

"I don't really know, Carlisle said that it's a different kind of bond. You're Edward's singer, Hermione is Jasper's mate. Your blood is almost irresistible to Edward but Hermione's blood doesn't have the same effect on Jazz. He doesn't want to drink from her, he only wants to protect her. At least that's what we know so far," she shrugged.

Hermione finally escaped from the kitchen and collapsed into the seat beside Bella. She took out her wand and silently cast a spell to clean away the milk from her clothes and hair.

"Had fun then?" Alice giggled.

"Hi Alice, and no, not fun. I don't know what it is about breakfast but that little menace hates it. Cereal at any other time is fine but first thing in the morning? It's like you're trying to feed him poison with the way he rejects it!" Hermione exclaimed.

Bella laughed, "So you left Jasper to deal with it?"

"Ergh! Teddy's in love with him, didn't even make a fuss when Jasper told him to eat up!" she cried. The girls carried on talking until a roar from the fireplace interrupted them and Sirius stumbled out of the green flames.

He straightened up, smoothing out his waistcoat as he greeted them again, "Sorry about that, Ron's at Grimmauld and Harry was trying to distract him while I made my exit."

"He didn't hear where you were going, did he?" Hermione asked worriedly.

"I don't think so, he's over at the house constantly though! Keeps asking where you are. That boy is obsessed with you, he-"

Alice interrupted softly, "Erm, who is Ron?"

Bella hid a snicker behind her hand while Sirius smirked at the annoyed looking Hermione, "Ronnie-boy is Hermione's beau."

Hermione swiped at Sirius, "He is not my 'beau'! You're getting as bad as Mrs Weasley!"

"Hey!" Sirius cried, sobering up a bit, "That is just uncalled for! Molly isn't half as suave as I am!"

"Hmm, I'm sure."

"Was Teddy any trouble?"

"No no, he was fine," answered Hermione, "Mostly."

"Ah," he said, pulling a Cheerio from her hair, "The breakfast struggle again?"

"What is it with that boy and-" she was cut off once more by the green blaze of the fire that signalled someone arriving by the Floo. Out stepped a redhead followed by an annoyed looking Harry.

"I told you not to go near the- Hi Hermione, I'm really sorry!" Harry said as he saw her.

"Hermione!" Ron cried, "There you are! I've been looking everywhere! When are you coming home? We've got all these arrangements to make for the wed-"

"Oh for the love of Merlin!" Sirius groaned.

"What's going on?" Jasper asked as he walked into the living room carrying Teddy on his hip as the toddler played contentedly with his shirt buttons. "Hi Sirius."

"Hi Jasper, and hello Sir Theodore!" Sirius said as Jasper handed the young boy over. "Didst thou take care of our fair maidens?"

"Yeah!" Teddy giggled.

"Who's this?" asked Jasper as he looked between Ron and Hermione, missing the uncomfortable expressions on the faces of the rest of the group.

When no one answered, Ron stepped up and held out his hand to Jasper. "I'm Ron. Ron Weasley. I'm Herms' fiancé."


	14. Has She Called Him 'Ronald' Yet!

**_Last chapter:_**_ "Who's this?" asked Jasper as he looked between Ron and Hermione, missing the uncomfortable expressions on the faces of the rest of the group. When no one answered, Ron stepped up and held out his hand to Jasper. "I'm Ron. Ron Weasley. I'm Herms' fiancé."_

* * *

_Bella's House._

The group froze. Ron still held his hand out to shake Jasper's, not noticing the tension in the room as the rest of them looked on. Jasper was frozen in place, one hand on Hermione's lower back, the other halfway extended towards Ron.

"Fiance?" Jasper breathed out, his smile breaking as he fell back onto the sofa behind him.

"Yes, fian-"

"No!" Hermione interrupted. "Not my fiancé! Shut up Ronald!" She turned around and knelt in front of Jasper, taking his hands in hers, "Honestly Jasper, there was never anything there."

"What do you mean nothing there?!" Ron screeched.

Hermione's reply was cut off as a silvery hyena leapt through the wall and caught her attention. The misty animal looked at the group and as it opened its mouth, Fred Weasley's voice came out, "Are we missing it?!"

"What is that?" Alice asked Bella quietly, staring at the animal-thing with a stunned expression.

Bella shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly, "Magic thing, it's all weird, I'll tell you later."

"Has she called him 'Ronald' yet?!" the hyena cried desperately, "Gred and I are trying to get over there but our _darling sister_-" the group could hear the muffled sounds of Ginny and George arguing in the background, "-won't let us near the floo, so we can't witness this pleasant reunion first hand. Sirius, I'm expecting you to remember every detail of this and report back ASAP."

"What do you mean nothing?" Ron repeated through gritted teeth, his fists clenched as he saw how Hermione and Jasper were acting with each other.

"I meant what I said_, Ronald_. We aren't getting married, we aren't dating, we never have and we never will. We kissed once and it was a mistake!" Hermione told him.

"But we're meant to be together Herms-"

"_Don't_ call me Herms! And we are not meant to be together, if we were, do you honestly think we would have the relationship that we do?"

"See! There! You said it! We have a relationship!" he cried triumphantly.

"Yes, we have a relationship," she groaned, "Just like my relationship with Harry, Fred, George, Neville, Bill, Charlie…even Percy! I love you like a friend, like a brother, I can't-"

Her words were cut off by Ron pressing his mouth to hers in a harsh and possessive kiss. Hardly a kiss really, more like his face on her face. It wasn't loving or caring at all, and Hermione was repulsed. Repulsed and mad beyond belief.

She wasn't the only one.

Jasper flew out of his seat the moment Ron latched on to Hermione and slammed his fist into the face of the young wizard. Unfortunately for Ron, Jasper's instinct to protect his mate meant that he hadn't restrained himself that much, and Ron was hit with almost _all_ of Jasper's enhanced vampire-strength.

"What the hell?!" Ron howled as he clutched his broken nose.

"Back off," Jasper said, his tone cold and murderous. He was standing in front of Ron now, making sure that Hermione was safely behind him.

"Oh," Sirius said quietly as the reality of the situation hit him. "Mates?" he mouthed to Hermione as he adjusted Teddy's position on his hip, making sure that the boy's head was still buried in his shoulder as he had told him to do once Ron and Hermione started arguing.

She replied with a solemn nod before turning her attention back to Jasper. She put a hand on his arm and said gently, "I'm ok, Jasper. Really, I'm fine." It took a few seconds but the angry vampire began to calm down, tiring quickly as his efforts to rein in his emotions – and everyone else's – left him exhausted.

"Mate, come on, let's get you home and fix you up. You moron." Harry said as he hauled the still bleeding Ron up from the floor, not seeing the looks on Jasper and Alice's faces as they smelled the fresh blood. However, Sirius did and quickly made his way to the floo, holding Teddy securely to him.

Sirius turned back to Hermione before he threw down the floo powder, "We are going to have a long talk tomorrow, missy," and with a wink, he and Teddy were gone.

"Sorry 'Mione," Harry whispered to her as Ron groaned loudly as he stumbled along with Harry, "Next time I see you it'll be a good visit. Less shouting and punching."

She nodded and gave a small chuckle, aware of the pressing need to remove the bleeding boy from the house. "I'll be seeing you then…" she said, all but shoving the boys into the fireplace.

When they had disappeared, she took out her wand and quickly cast some cleansing and freshening charms over the room, attempting to rid the house of the smell of Ron's blood.

"You did well, Jazz," Alice said. At Hermione's questioning look she added, "Bella got a papercut last year and he…"

"Almost attacked her," Jasper finished, looking ashamed of himself.

"You're a vampire, Jasper," Bella said with a small smile, "I'd be kind of offended if you didn't want a taste."

Jasper laughed slightly at her joke, relieved that his control seemed to have improved. If only in the bloodlust area, the desire to punch Ron some more was definitely not out of his system yet.

"So how are you ok with Ron's blood?"

"I…I don't know," he replied.

"I think I might," Alice interjected, bouncing a little on her tip-toes, "You were in _protector mode_. It wasn't about blood or feeding or any of that, it was just keeping him away from Hermione." She looked between Bella and Hermione, "So what was the silver hyena thing with the human voice…?"

* * *

Jasper and Alice left soon after that, with the incident with Ron fresh in their minds and the fact that there had been major changes that week, they decided to leave Bella and Hermione to themselves for the day. Or most of the day, at least, since Jasper climbed up the tree outside Hermione's bedroom window that night and tapped on the glass.

Hermione heard the soft tapping but dismissed it as the tree branches blowing against the glass in the wind and carried on thumbing through her photo album as she sat on her bed, wrapped up in blankets and quilts. When the tapping got louder, she turned around expecting to see an owl or something, and was incredibly surprised to see a smiling blonde not-exactly-teenage teenager balanced on the limb of the tree, gesturing for her to let him in.

She put the album down on her bed and walked over to the window, sliding it up enough for the vampire to dash in and then shutting it quickly to stop the wind making her room cold. She turned around to see Jasper sitting at the end of her bed, looking slightly awkward as he played with the dark blue quilt that sat there.

"So, what's going on?" she asked as she moved to sit beside him on the bed, picking up the quilt and covering her pyjama-clad legs up once more.

He heaved a sigh before flopping back on the bed in a very ungraceful manner, something she found funny since he and the rest of the Cullens seemed to do everything in an elegant fashion. He noticed her quiet giggles and pulled her down next to him, laughing as well as she yelped in surprise.

"Did I scare you off?" he asked quietly, his tone giving away his nervousness.

"I've been petrified, left at the bottom of a lake, watched my professor turn into a werewolf after I thought he smuggled a mass murderer into the school," she said, moving closer to him with every new point, "cursed by Death Eaters, captured, imprisoned…tortured and I'm still here. If you want to scare me off then you'll have to do a lot more than punch my…_fiancé_," she finished with a smile and a quick kiss before she giggled at his mock-livid expression.

* * *

_A.N. I know it's been a long time since I last posted anything for Evergreen and I haven't forgotten about these stories, I've just got a lot of work on at the moment but I'm finishing soon so there will be more soon!_


	15. The Dogs Are Back To Talk

**_Last chapter:_**_ "Did I scare you off?" he asked quietly, his tone giving away his nervousness. "If you want to scare me off then you'll have to do a lot more than punch my…fiancé," she finished with a smile and a quick kiss before she giggled at his livid expression._

* * *

Jasper ran through the woods, the forest floor barely unsettled as he moved swiftly over it. He reached a clearing and stopped as he saw her lying there amongst the flowers and the long grass. He moved slowly towards her, not wanting to disturb her as she looked so relaxed.

Very relaxed.

_Too relaxed._

He picked up the pace and was beside her in an instant. He couldn't smell her. He couldn't hear her breathing or the beat of her heart. She was silent. She was still.

Why was she still?! He tried shaking her, calling her name, crying out to her, trying anything to make her open her eyes again.

He laid beside her, crying silently, with no tears to shed. He didn't know how long he had laid there. The sun came up and shone on her cold, pale body. When he looked over at her, he was startled to see her eyes were open. His delight was short-lived as it wasn't the warm, chocolate brown colour that he loved. It was a brilliant red that he hated seeing in her eyes. Her eyes stared at him in hatred, something he had never seen in those beautiful brown eyes that he loved.

"You did this to me!"

He tried to speak but he couldn't, he tried to reach out to her but she wrenched her arms away from his grasp.

"No! How could you?! I hate you!"

"Hermione! Please! I didn't-! I never wanted this for you!"

"Jasper!" she called in a softer voice, one that wasn't filled with anger.

"Jasper!" she repeated, but her lips weren't moving. He looked at her face, took in her hard set features and the way that she glared at him with still lips as he heard it again. "Jasper, are you in there?"

He jolted out of his dream, his daydream, that's all it was. He laid back on the bed and sighed in relief. It was just a dream. It hadn't really happened. It was just a dream.

_For now._

_Will she hate me?_

"Are you ok?" her voice came from the pillow beside his. He looked over and saw her concern for him in her eyes. Her _brown_ eyes.

"I am now," he smiled and pulled her into a gentle kiss.

She pulled away with a smile, "Good, because it's going to get _really _awkward today."

Jasper watched as she got up from the bed and moved over to the dresser, picking out her clothes to get ready for the day. "Why will today be awkward?"

"Sirius is coming over to talk to us," she said as she walked into the bathroom with a bundle of clothes.

"And why is that bad?"

Hermione's head and bare shoulders peered around the door as she replied, "Because Sirius wants to _talk_ to us. And knowing him, it'll be every kind of talk."

Jasper chuckled, "It can't be that bad."

"Oh it is," she warned, pulling a dark green jumper over her head. "Last time, he made pamphlets. You should probably go change, you'll just give him more ammunition if he thinks that we're…well…"

He grinned and quickly walked towards her, stopping to press a kiss to her cheek, and before she could breathe a goodbye, he was gone. She walked briskly over to the window, closing it behind him to stop the chill, before sitting on her bed, praying that Sirius didn't bring along an audience.

She thought about her past relationships, if she could really call them that. There was the back and forth with Ron that had been going on for years, and apparently was still going on – if only one way – but they had never really made it past the friends stage apart from one kiss. There had been a few dates with Viktor back in fourth year and then the summer after, but he was older than her and at fourteen, she wasn't really ready for a boyfriend. Her only real relationship had lasted a few months and had been with Oliver Wood, they had met again during the Christmas break of her sixth year when visiting the twins at WWW and kept in touch for the rest of the year. Before she and the boys had left for the horcrux hunt, when Oliver was free from Quidditch practise and Hermione had escaped from her research and studies, they started meeting up. Lunches in Hogsmeade quickly evolved into dates which involved Hermione borrowing Harry's cloak to make it out of the castle unseen. Being above the legal age thanks to her – apparently excessive – use of the time turner, Professor McGonagall had given her permission to leave school grounds; she just didn't tell anyone but Harry since it would have meant her doing the booze run every time there was a Quidditch match. And it would have meant awkward questions from Ron, she remembered their fight after the Yule Ball and an _actual_ relationship would make it much more intense and aggravating.

And now…now she had an eternally-teenage vampire boyfriend, not just a boyfriend, _a mate_. A mate that would have to turn her one day.

_Perhaps it would have been easier to stick with her subconscious Quidditch player fetish…_

* * *

Later that day, Bella, Charlie, Hermione and Jasper were seated in the living room, waiting for Sirius as he had called ahead earlier – being much calmer about muggle technology than Arthur is, he got the hang of it pretty quickly – and had mentioned that someone was coming with him. Charlie had accepted Jasper's presence easier than he had Edward's knowing that he wasn't Hermione's father, no matter how protective he was, and that she could probably jinx him or curse him or whatever witches did to boyfriends that step out of line.

Their attention was soon drawn to the fireplace as the tall green flames shot up and out stepped Sirius, followed by Remus who looked slightly wary of the new face in the room.

"Good afternoon Swan's, Granger's and…boyfriend's whose surnames I do not know…" Sirius greeted with a questioning look at the couple before Jasper supplied his name.

"Hale, sir."

"Well good afternoon Hale's," he smiled.

"Remus," Hermione smiled shyly, "This is Jasper. Jasper, this is Remus," she waved her hand between them uncomfortably as the men shifted awkwardly.

Charlie noticed the tension in the room and was eager to escape it, "You guys hungry? Maybe we should start dinner. Bella?"

"Yes, I'll help!" Bella chirped, following her father out of the room. "Have fun with your talk!" she called back over her shoulder.

"So…what did you want to talk about…?" Hermione asked with a wince as she looked at the wizards.

"Mates," Remus said simply, "You're mates."

"Do you know what that means?" Sirius questioned seriously.

The couple looked at each other, "Not exactly," Jasper answered. "I mean, Carlisle explained some of it to us but, the bond hasn't really changed since it formed so we're just kind of…"

"Going with the flow," Hermione picked up.

Sirius barked a laugh, "You? 'Going with the flow'?" he looked over at Remus who was attempting to hide a smile. "Never, in all the years that I've known you, have you '_gone with the flow'._"

Remus pulled two small books from the inner pocket of his robes and once he had restored them to normal size them with a wave of his wand, handed them over to Hermione. "I found them in the library at Grimmauld. Apparently, the mate bond is different when the vampire's mate is magical. I haven't read them, just skimmed them to find out what they were about, but hopefully it helps…"

"Ooh!" Hermione's eyes widened as she looked over the covers of the books, '_A Vampire's Mate: A Witches' Journey'_ and '_Behind the Bite: A Study in Creature Bond Magic'_. She loved the Black family library, despite Molly's orders that all books pertaining to dark magic were to be disposed of, she and Remus had created an alcove that stored all of the books that were not Molly-Weasley-approved, knowing that they would come in handy at some point. _Points like this one_.

She looked over at Jasper and noticed his tense stance as he kept a hard grip on her hand. "Jasper? You ok?"

"I…um…I…"

"Oh!" she exclaimed, "Dog?"

The two wizards were confused by their exchange but noticed that after his nod, and a wave of her wand, the vampire's shoulders slumped and he breathed in deeply through his nose with a satisfied smile.

"Um…?" Sirius attempted to question.

"Erm, well…" Hermione started, "You both smell like dog. No offence. But you kind of are and well, vampires are naturally wary of canine smells and-"

"I understand," Remus interrupted. "It works both ways. It's actually why I'm here. I caught a hint of it last time and when Teddy came home smelling strongly of vampire, I had to make sure that everything was ok."

"Hermione," Bella called from the kitchen.

She hesitated for a second, not wanting to leave the men in an uncomfortable situation but not knowing how she could make it any less awkward.

"Go on," Sirius grinned, "It's our duty as your magical dads to warn off your boyfriend. Go on, get out," he shooed her playfully.

When Hermione had shut the door behind her, Jasper turned to the men with a slight smile, which faltered when he caught the serious expressions on their faces.

"We're serious. We're having a little talk."

* * *

A.N. Sorry! This update is so late! I'll try to update sooner next time :S


	16. His 'Precious Petal'

**_Last chapter:_**_ "Go on," Sirius grinned, "It's our duty as your magical dads to warn off your boyfriend. Go on, get out," he shooed her playfully. When Hermione had shut the door behind her, Jasper turned to the men with a slight smile, which faltered when he caught the serious expressions on their faces. "We're serious. We're having a little talk."_

* * *

Jasper looked nervously between the two wizards for a few moments, unsure of how to proceed. It had been a few decades, more like centuries, since he had been subjected to a 'father' talk and having two men that were capable of things he could only dream of looking at him _that seriously_, was enough to give him pause.

"So, with the books that I've given to Hermi-"

"Moony! Can it with the books!" Sirius cried. "We're supposed to be intimidating and scare the boy-"

"I'm actually older than you-"

Sirius ignored Jasper's interruption, "-so that he never sets a foot wrong!"

"Sirius, I really doubt that Hermione would approve of us interfering in that way, and the books are about their bond, this isn't a normal relationship," Remus reasoned.

"When was the last time she approved of anything I did? It doesn't matter, she needs us to do this-"

"Padfoot, you tried this with the Zabini boy-"

"As I should have-"

"They weren't even dating-"

Sirius shrugged, "Didn't do any harm."

"Sirius! The boy fainted! He had been out of the country since before you had been pardoned, imagine if you went to pick someone up for dinner and a 'notorious mass murderer' barrels into the room and starts threatening to hex you to China if you hurt his 'precious petal'!"

Sirius winced while Jasper bit back a smile, "Uhm…'precious petal'?"

"I may have been at the firewhiskey a bit that night…anyway, the point is, we are her magical dads and therefore, we are responsible for taking care of her," Sirius glared hard at Jasper. "If you hurt her, mate or not, we will…" he trailed off before stepping back towards Remus, not taking his eyes off Jasper. He whispered from the side of his mouth, "Uh, Remus, what's bad for vampires?"

Remus rolled his eyes at his friend, "Honestly, Pads, this is O.W.L. level stuff."

"Well excuse me, but I've been a little busy these past twenty years, you know, prison, war, that time when I died…"

"You didn't die, bloody drama queen," he grumbled. "Fire, just go with fire."

"We will set you on fire!" Sirius crowed triumphantly until he saw Jasper's smirk. "Hey! No smirking! I'm threatening you!"

Sirius crossed him arms over his chest and looked at Jasper, he couldn't look down at him intimidatingly since he was about the same height as him. Remus had the opportunity but, he was Remus and without a threat, he would never act in such a way, especially when he was tired out after a full moon.

"I know," Jasper replied. "And I understand why, I really do. It's great that you're looking out for her, she loves you both so much. But you have nothing to worry about from me. I couldn't hurt her if I tried," he ended with a chuckle.

"Is it the bond?" Remus asked.

"Part of it, I suppose. I mean, we live the way that we do so that we don't hurt humans. We don't bite them or drink human blood. The bond makes it so that I can't smell her blood. Edward has it bad since he can smell Bella's blood all the time, she's his singer, which makes it hard for him sometimes. But Hermione's my mate, I need to protect her, I can't do that if I constantly want to drink from her, so I can't smell her."

"Is that all you know?" Sirius prodded.

"Carlisle told us that eventually, I'd need to change her, make her one of us," Jasper told them quietly.

"So Hermione's going to…she'll be…"

"A vampire, yes," Jasper supplied sadly. "It's the only way that we survive this bond."

"There are ups though, right," Sirius said, trying to bring the mood up. "I mean, she'll have vampire powers and things like that…she'll be able to go to Teddy's great-great-great-great-great-grandson's wedding…"

Remus noticed the vampire's shoulders slump at that statement, "What is it?"

"She won't be able to lead a normal life," Jasper said. "She'll never have the house with a white picket fence and kids that run around in the garden playing with a dog. I can't give her those things and we're mated and we can't separate without dying so she can't get married to some other guy…" he trailed off.

Remus and Sirius exchanged a solemn glance before Remus stepped closer to the vampire, "Jasper, I don't know how much you've talked to Hermione about this but…" he hesitated and looked back at Sirius, who stepped in.

"'Mione isn't the type for all that, she doesn't want the ideal house and she's got me if she wants to play fetch."

"But what about kids? I can't give her that and she's so good with Teddy, she has to be a mom," Jasper sighed.

Sirius ran a hand through his hair, "She's great with Teddy, she's great with all kids, but…Hermione can't have children."

The vampire looked between the two wizards, looking both sad and confused. Remus gestured to the sofa, waiting for Jasper to sit before sinking into the seat beside him, Sirius perched on the armchair on his other side. "She's explained to you about her part in the war?"

Jasper nodded, "She hasn't really gone into much detail, but I don't want to push her…"

"That's wise," Sirius said. "You see, after everything that went on, especially with my _dear cousin Bella_," he spat, "she went to St Mungo's for a once over, she had some curse damage that was easily fixed."

"But you said that-"

"It was only the minor damage that was healed. Her more extensive injuries couldn't be healed completely."

"So she can never-?"

Remus shook his head, "The healers said that with the extent of the internal scarring from the Cruciatus, she would have about a 10% chance of carrying a child to term. The risk to both her and a child would be too great."

The three men shot out of their seats as the door opened and Hermione's head poked through the crack, a worried smile on her face as she scanned Jasper for any sign of a hex from Sirius. Satisfied that he hadn't bat-bogeyed her mate, she opened the door wider, "Dinner's ready!"

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A.N. So so so so so sorry about the long gap between updates! This story reached 200 reviews, 300 favourites and 500 followers last chapter so thank you to all of you!


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